Mirrors, an Apple, and a Spindle
by JadeAngelice
Summary: If the HiME battles keep repeating themselves, and the same people tend to reincarnate and be involved in them, where did it all begin? Swords and sorcery in a major fairy tale crossover. The only one who can save Snow White is...Sleeping Beauty?
1. Chapter 1

I still can't figure out how to space the lines out so they aren't so crowded and it won't let me indent! It's driving me crazy. I LIKE TO INDENT D:

Anyway, weird dream leads to ideas that won't go away so writing them down might help. Maybe you'll enjoy. :)

* * *

The sun was high over her kingdom when she awoke, and her eyes burned as if she had lived in the dark her whole life. She tried a few times to get up, finding that her body was very hard to move, as if it bore the weight of years of inactivity. Finally the fair-haired woman settled for propping herself into a sitting position with her silk pillows, allowing the embroidered sheets to slide from her legs.

The light of noon streamed through the windows of the tower, the gold of her bedposts and silver of her dressing table shining like the sun and moon. This place was very beautiful, even a tomb as it was. Licking her dry lips, she wondered for how many years she had slept. For a while, she stared at the golden spinning wheel that sat in the corner, a testament to both her foolishness and her destiny. She wondered if there were anything she could have done to prevent the prophecy from coming to pass, but eventually told herself that it did not matter, for the curse was finished. She knew not how—perhaps the maleficent one had been destroyed, and with her, the magic that kept the princess asleep?  
"A mercy from the gods, for sure, if she is dead." She tried her voice, finding her vocal cords dry and scratching, but usable.  
"Lady, we wish that were the case." A wry voice caused her to give a start, and she turned to the doorway of her tomb where a short redhead with piercing green eyes stood scowling.

Another redhead joined her, though the first was a redhead in the way that blood is red, and this second had a much more normal shade. However, her eyes were the color of wild lavender. This second redhead, who was not nearly as short and skinny, but curvaceous and well-endowed, smiled at her placidly.

"What she means to say is that we woke you to help us defeat the witch who left you here. I'm afraid Nao did not receive the gift of tact from our mother." She added, glancing unhappily at her companion.

"If that's what you want to call them." The short girl, Nao, said, staring pointedly at her sister's gifted chest. The taller of the two crossed her arms over the subject of conversation and scowled.

"We're on a mission here, Nao! Why can't you hold in your attitude for even five minutes!" she said, stomping her foot as a child would. The princess smiled, finding amusement for the first time in—how long? Nao made a face of rebuttal, but the fair-haired woman raised a hand in command for silence.

"How long have we been asleep?" she asked, and the short one crossed her arms.

"Who the heck is 'we'?" she asked seriously, and the taller redhead stifled a laugh.

"It's the royal 'we,' Nao, she's the princess of the second largest kingdom on Atlantis. Have some culture." Nao growled. The princess filed their use of the term 'Atlantis' for her home country away for later. Only those from outside the Shimmering Isles referred to this place in that way.

"Have a brain." She replied, and the taller redhead made to reply, but the princess raised her hand again, and she stopped, collected herself, and answered.

"Five hundred years." Nao answered before her lavender-eyed companion could. The princess felt that her tomb had suddenly lost much of its color. Perhaps, for the moment, much of existence had lost its color to her. Five hundred years was two generations. Everyone she had ever known or cared for was dead. Her father must have been a horribly tortured man for the latter half of his life.

"I'm sorry." The taller redhead offered, and it did not lessen the blow. The princess did not want to marinate in this helpless, lonely feeling, so she instead fixed a cold, determined gaze on the girls in front of her. The taller one shrank away from her instinctively.

"Why wake us now, after all this time has passed? What can we possibly do to defeat the maleficent one?" she asked directly, feeling exhausted. "We are only a sleeping princess."  
"Not the sleeping princess." Nao started with an unpleasant smirk, "_The Sleeping Beauty, who awakes within a curse_." The shorter girl recited obviously. The princess narrowed her eyes, and the taller redhead elbowed her sister to silence.  
"A prophecy given by the crystal cave." The princess did recall the crystal cave. It gave visions and prophecy to the most powerful wizards and witches of the Shimmering Isles. They were, perhaps, the only predictions that could be trusted implicitly.

"May we hear it?" she asked, and the lavender-eyed girl looked to her sister. Nao shrugged and spoke.

_"The fairest of them all becomes Maleficent, and she will control the whole of the Land. When she is most powerful, another will gain the power to usurp her. She will be white as snow, and the Land itself shall embrace her purity of heart and soul. The Fairest Queen's darkness will come for pure Snow White from each corner of the Land, and alone her removed heart will serve to strengthen a maleficent hold on the people. The only victory lies in the protection of the princess by Sleeping Beauty, who awakes within a curse and a palace become tomb."_ She paused, "Even though it seems like you only got an honorable mention there in the last line, it looks like we can't save Snow White without you."

The princess stared at them for many moments, digesting this information. Certainly, there weren't many princesses who could have been put into a cursed sleep and left in their own bedrooms for five hundred years, even giving that much time for history to repeat itself. She had also heard the witch call herself "The Maleficent One" whilst she offered a monologue to the fair-haired girl as she had fallen into her half millennia sleep. How, though, might she be capable of protecting this Snow White from the witch? The fairies had given her beauty, wit, grace, dance, song, and even the ability to play musical instruments, but none of these seemed as if they would stop a witch from taking the girl's heart.

"Our kingdom?" she asked the girls, and the shorter one looked pointedly at her sister.

"Was taken over by the Queen when your father…was gone." The princess knew she would find out why the reluctance to clarify at a later time, "This palace was sealed up, like a tomb, and it was forbidden by royal decree to enter here. She then began war with the neighboring kingdoms, and most combined to fight against her. This is how yours became the second-largest kingdom." She offered. "Ten years ago, she took the largest kingdom on Atlantis not through war, as she had failed for five hundred years to do, but with subterfuge. Once she consolidated her power and built up a singular military strength, she began systematically taking control of the smaller nations one by one. Very soon, she will control the 'whole of the Land,' like the prophecy says." She finished somberly.

"On the bright side, it has taken her ten years because she _sucks_ at this. Mai, you really have got to find a sense of humor. You're very Debbie Downer over there." The younger sister said, and Mai frowned.

"Well, this isn't a joke." Nao shrugged.

"It probably should be." She told her lavender-eyed sister, who sighed.

The princess lost herself in thought, weighing many things, and trying not to think of her father. She failed at that though, and her mind refused to stop telling her that he was a great man who believed strongly in always doing what was right. That was how she had ended up in this bedroom for five hundred years, another side of her pointed out. Did she even want to help this Snow White? And what power would she call upon to do so, were she to accept this fool's errand? Certainly, she was royalty, but if the maleficent one was Queen of her kingdom and all others, then the princess had no kind of power at all. Perhaps, if she did this, it would be only to protect the purity and innocence of this Snow White, who by this nature could not deserve having her heart taken out. By rights, most people did not deserve that. Perhaps, if she did this, then much like her father before her, she would be doing it because it was the right thing to do.  
Decided, she found the strength to stand, and moved to the mirror next to the spinning wheel. _Mirror, Mirror_; she had remembered the witch talking to herself in the mirror. She made eye contact with herself and inhaled sharply. What was the matter with her eyes? They were blue when she had fallen asleep, she was certain. Now they were as red as Nao's hair. Her hair had faded from goldenrod to a nearly colorless chestnut. Perhaps that was because she had been inside for five hundred years, but her eyes? She glanced over at Mai, who had a knowing look in her eyes. She raised an eyebrow in question, and the girl knew better than to make her wait.

"You awoke…within a curse. We…didn't break it. We couldn't—we don't know how." She explained, and the princess narrowed her eyes. She was still cursed, and her hair and eyes had likely changed when she had been cursed-physical changes often ensued when one was touched by magic. Her appearance had changed when the fairies had given her their magical gifts as well. Perhaps hidden in this curse was the power she had to save this Snow White. She watched herself in the mirror for a few moments more. She removed the tiara from her head, very aware that it no longer meant anything at all. She was not sure if she mourned or celebrated this fact as she turned to the girls in the hallway.

"We shall go now. You will tell _me _who you are and how you came into possession of this prophecy." She forced herself to speak in the singular. It would not do to be speaking to peasants in the plural if she did not want to be noticed. Mai nodded, and Nao snorted. She found Nao extremely unattractive, but supposed she could not expect someone of low breeding to behave in a ladylike manner.

"Um…we found you with lots of history-hunting and magical scrying, but…" Mai began, and the princess raised a brow at her unwillingness to continue. Nao rolled her eyes.

"We found a 'sleeping princess,'" she clarified, "But we don't know who you are. We don't know your name."

"Oh." The princess said, and offered them a small smile. "Our name..." she paused to correct herself, "_My_ name is Shizuru."

"Then, it's nice to meet you, Princess Shizuru." Mai offered with a smile, "This is Nao, and I'm Mai. Our family name is Grimm." The princess shook her head.

"You should simply call me Shizuru, as I will not be a—what is this?" she lost her sentence as she left the room, finding guards and maids alike sleeping in the halls of her palace. She recognized many of them. They had been asleep as long as she had.  
"Turns out, miss 'Good Fairy,' you know, the one that gave you the final gift that made the curse breakable? She also figured you'd be lonely or something, and put everyone in the castle to sleep as well." Nao Grimm said with a roll of her eyes, and Shizuru frowned.

"We have awoken, why have not they?" she asked, knowing that many of them would wake (if they ever did) with the same knowledge she had—everyone had gone on five hundred years without them.

"The curse isn't broken yet…we figure…after we save the world, or even while, we can search for information that helps us figure out how to do that." Mai offered sheepishly, and the princess nodded.

"Then…my father?" she felt she had to ask, even though she suspected he was not among those here. "My mother?" Mai seemed to be searching for something to say, so the fair-haired princess turned to Nao, who shrugged and said,

"They're dead. They weren't put to sleep like these subjects. It was everyone in the castle at the time…they weren't inside." The princess nodded, showing none of her inner despair to them. This was not a time for weakness.

"I will need to change, I suppose." She said, glancing down at the dress she wore, made of embroidered silk and covered in silver and gold. "Follow me." She led them toward the servants' section of the castle, where she would find something befitting a traveler or peasant to wear. The thought did not please her, but it was necessary. "Who are the two of you? I have your names, but I know nothing aside from the fact that you have been touched by magic and you are not from the Shimmering Isles." Mai looked shocked at the information she had already gleaned with her magically-acquired 'wit', but Nao just snapped her focus angrily to her sister.

"I _told_ you not to call it Atlantis, Mai! I told you I had never read a _single_ piece of written anything from this country that did _not_ refer to this place as the Shimmering Isles! But nooo, you didn't believe me!" she ranted with a victorious smirk. Mai huffed.

"I…well, I was just sure I'd seen it called both on all kinds of scrolls." She muttered in defeat, while Nao laughed loudly. Mai turned her attention back to the princess. "Anyway, yeah, her hair and my eyes changed when that Good Fairy of yours cast the spell to let us travel here. I guess normally we can't even see this place because it's like, the 'land of magic' or something. She was the one who told us about you, and how to wake you up even though we don't know how to break the curse."

"Which is weird," Nao added, "Because I thought the curse WAS sleep." The corners of the princess' lips turned upward.

"Things are not always as they seem." She answered, having read much of the history of the Isles. "Although I must admit, I was under the impression that was the curse as well. Why the two of you? Why were outsiders chosen, and why could not the Good Fairy herself awake me?" Mai and Nao both averted their eyes in discomfort. The princess narrowed her own in suspicion.

"Well, um…we're sort of…collectors of information." Mai finally said, and Nao scowled.

"Well, she hoards, I hunt. I like the rare stuff. Stuff that nobody else has ever heard of." Nao said. Mai rolled her eyes.

"And by hunt, she means steal. She steals rare scrolls and tricks valuable information from anyone she can. I collect mostly historical records and what we call 'fairy tales'." Mai explained, and Nao grinned.

"Not stealing and tricking, just liberating from dark places and loose tongues is all. We both like the stuff most people call 'fairy tales,' or any kind of wild story that's hard to believe. Because our mother was born here, and she told us about this place before she died. So we know it's not always just stories." Nao finished, glancing a question at Mai.

"The fairy told us what was at stake, and we said we'd help. She said she couldn't trust anyone here, and that her power had been almost completely drained by the spell she used to hide Snow White from the Queen when she was eight." Mai said, and Shizuru nodded. The princess turned into one of the servants' quarters, finding a girl roughly her size asleep in her bed. She began rifling through the girl's drawers for something that she could stand to have against her skin. She suspected that she was a bit spoiled. "She also was not sure that the princess was Snow White. She suspected, but wanted us to help her to verify it, as well as to find the princess now."

"All right, then. Now tell me what you know about Snow White." She asked, determined to keep her mind occupied with thoughts of business and purpose. Otherwise she might begin thinking about the girl asleep in the bed behind them, and whether or not she had family inside or outside of the castle.

"Pushy, pushy." Nao said, and gestured to Mai. The princess had noticed that they seemed to defer different information to each other, as if each had their specialty. For instance, Nao had been the one who recited prophecy. Perhaps they took their favoritism a bit far, and deferred all related information to the other for memorization immediately after categorization. It would be strange, but efficient. Nao took mystical, vague, or obscure information whilst Mai took historical and political.

"I told you that ten years ago, the Queen took the largest kingdom in Atl—um, on the Isles—by subterfuge. She poisoned the king's wife and courted the grieving king in disguise. He fell under her spell and eventually married her, at which point his two sons were mysteriously killed in a hunting accident, and his daughter disappeared. She was with them that day, and while the fairy could not save the boys, she led the young princess deeper into the forest. The animal that the Queen had sent to kill the boys refused to harm the girl, and instead chose to become her companion. Eventually, the fairy led the princess to a lonely hunter who took her in. She was presumed dead by the Queen when her magic could not locate the girl."

"The doing of the fairy?" The princess clarified, and Mai nodded, glancing at Nao, who picked up the monologue.

"The princess is our Snow White." Nao began, and Shizuru looked a question. "Chill out, I'm getting there. Anecdotally, the prophecy talks about her purity and connection to the Land itself, and this big scary monster decided to become the girl's pet..." she pointed out, and then took a deep breath for storytelling. "The story is that when the king's first wife was trying to conceive, she pricked herself on a rose in the garden while walking in the winter. She saw the blood in the snow and wished aloud that her daughter could have hair the color of ebony, lips red as blood, and skin _white as snow_." She emphasized, but the princess wasn't convinced and she could tell. "The Land with a capital 'L' heard her and granted her wish, as it sometimes does, and she ended up with a girl that fits just that description. When I picture a kid like that in my head, I can't decide if it's absolutely adorable, or hideously creepy." Nao added unnecessarily and at Shizuru's eye roll continued, "…but we encountered the daughter of a midwife of the princess', and she told us that her mother and father used to call her 'Snow White' as a term of endearment. So." On the word of a midwife, it seemed they were going into these woods in search of, as Nao had so eloquently put it, an eighteen-year-old girl who would be either beautiful or unsettling to lay eyes upon. Sighing, the princess stood, dropping the garment in her hands and leaving to find her own rooms again. "What the—seriously, lady?" Nao groused.

"I do apologize, but it seems I will not be able to force myself into those kinds of clothes at all." she might have apologized for their benefit, but the princess didn't suppose she was actually remorseful. Those kinds of clothes were far too dirty and did not allow for any kind of grace at all.

* * *

The princess emerged from her quarters an hour later looking absolutely freaking amazing, in Nao's opinion. Glancing at her sister, she decided she wasn't the only one who felt that way. She had found a dark colored cloak that she was fastening around the gorgeously crafted dress she was wearing to hide it, but even the cloak seemed a little too nice for the type of people they were likely to encounter. She remembered having stared at the Sleeping Beauty for a lot longer than was necessary when she and Mai had arrived here to wake her up. They'd both commented on how unnaturally beautiful she was. The capitalized title the prophecy had given to her was definitely not coincidental. The girl was gorgeous, graceful, and when she spoke, it was a lot like a song. Later when she had got out of bed, Nao had noticed that when she moved, it was like she danced instead of walked.

She was so amazing that Nao found her presence insufferable. The redhead didn't much like feeling inadequate, and even the princess' anger made her feel just that. It was just a look and a narrowing of the eyes, and it communicated this anger more strongly than Nao's fist ever could. Not to mention she kept treating them like subjects-raising her hand to stop them talking, like it wasn't worth her words or something. It was driving her nuts, and she was looking forward to seeing the fair-haired princess get knocked down a few pegs once they got outside. She was betting that when something didn't go her way, this Shizuru chick would break down into a petulant child. It would make her feel much better about this whole working with her indefinitely thing.

"What the heck took you so long?" Nao Grimm asked with a scowl. Shizuru offered a placid smile, as she always did when talking to them. It was polite, and her voice was amazing to listen to, but the smile and manners never reached her eyes. They were cold, kind of like she would step on you as soon as look at you. It also made the redhead dislike this girl more.

"We…I had to do some sewing to render this dress more practical." She answered simply, and began walking toward the castle's exit. Nao gave Mai a look that told the older sister to stop hero-worshipping and follow them.

"What? I didn't—" Mai started to defend herself to Nao and stopped when Shizuru glanced their way. "Oh, nevermind." She followed them down the stairs, out of the castle, and into the evening.


	2. Chapter 2

Mai might have been hero-worshipping the freshly-awakened Sleeping Beauty just a little bit, but she didn't have to admit to it out loud. That would be inappropriate, not to mention embarrassing.

"What is going on here?" the princess asked them, or rather Mai—she had noticed that most of Shizuru's questions seemed directed at her, even if Nao was the one who answered. She and Nao shared their information, and while they both had a general idea what the other knew, they each had their specialties. Mai loved historical information, and Nao loved the strange and obscure. They both had a habit of memorizing information, and they had long ago decided it would make a lot more sense if they divided the information based on type and then each memorized their portion, so that no time or effort was wasted by sharing. "Part of the curse?" the princess clarified, and her voice suggested that she was not pleased that no answer had been forthcoming yet. The lavender-eyed Grimm glanced at Nao, who had been glaring at the princess' back. Her sister seemed to dislike the princess. Maybe dislike wasn't strong enough a word.

"Not part of the curse, the Good Fairy's idea of more protection," Nao answered, and Mai found herself smiling. The 'Good Fairy' had caused a giant forest of—well, brambles covered in thorns—protection to surround the castle so that no one wandered near and the curse could be suffered in peace. It had taken the Grimm sisters over a week to cut their way in here through the thinnest portion. She wasn't sure how they had managed not to kill each other after the first three days. When left alone together, they quickly dissolved into insults and threatened violence. Well, Nao was much more likely to do this than Mai herself was, but even she had her limits.

"I see," was the princess' answer, and Mai wondered what the gorgeous girl was thinking for the umpteenth time that day. She always seemed to be lost in thought, but at the same time she observed everything with extremely sharp eyes. It kind of reminded Mai of hawks living outside their village at home, of the way they looked when they were hunting. Like she saw everything, and maybe even like she was preparing for a threat.

"Come on, we cut a path through this mess on our way here," Nao offered, and led them to their left. The princess straightened her cloak, seemed to collect herself, and followed her sister. Mai stayed behind both, choosing to make sure that if someone or something approached them from behind, it would not be the princess who encountered it first. The Good Fairy had warned them about the things they might encounter in this place—Atlantis—that did not exist in her own world. And that's what this place was—it was like another world entirely. It appeared to be a large group of islands—the inhabitants here called this the Shimmering Isles—but people from her own world could not see it floating n the ocean. In fact, when they neared where it existed, they felt an urge to flee, or to turn aside and go a different direction.

"You're going to have to get down and crawl, Your Highness," Mai heard her sister tell the princess, and she heard no small amount of satisfaction in her voice. She heard a strange sound coming from Shizuru's throat at the statement and found herself smiling too. She wondered if the girl had ever gotten dirty in her life. She waited for an argument or something, but it never came. After the sound of displeasure (and maybe a little incredulity), Shizuru had simply turned her cloak around backwards and began crawling after Nao into the small path they had cut. She did find herself impressed that the girl had thought to save her dress by making sure the cloak was what touched the ground beneath her knees.

Even as absorbed as the fair-haired princess seemed in their environment, she still heard everything they said, but notably only responded when she had to, and even then in short sentences with few descriptors. She remembered when Shizuru had clarified or spoken sentences longer than a few words, it seemed an effort. Mai wondered if it hurt her to talk. Her vocal cords had gone five hundred years without being used, after all. She did notice the obvious relief written on Sleeping Beauty's face when they reached the larger portion of the path they had cut through the brambles though, as they stood up and dusted themselves off.

"We didn't know what we would find in there, so we thought we'd make it harder for anyone to follow us from either side. The entrance and exits of the path through the thorns are pretty small," she explained, and the princess nodded.

"A wise decision," the red-eyed princess offered, and then continued walking. "You will find the wildlife on the Isles much less harmless than that of your homeland," she added after a moment. Obviously, she felt the need to warn them. Mai remembered the fairy having told them more than once that there were things, creatures, in this place that should be avoided at all costs—the problem being that no one had told them how to do the avoiding.

She remembered asking the fairy before they had left what was so different about Atlantis, and the fairy had responded: _The Isles are not a magical place as magical places exist and are understood in your world, Mai Grimm, the Shimmering Isles __**are**__ magic._ She had also told the sisters that there were things that existed here that would defy their imaginations, as healthy as they were. She had actually used that phrase more than once about them like it was a great compliment, 'healthy imagination'. Mai wondered if it were important. She also thought—suddenly—that she didn't want to 'bring up the rear' anymore, so to speak, as this constant observation of the princess was distracting. She couldn't help herself—there was something about her that drew the attention. Also, Nao was spending half of her time looking back at the princess from in front and Mai could tell that it was irritating the girl. So without Shizuru constantly in her frame of view, she could pay more attention to surroundings, and Nao could stare at her all she wanted—from behind. God, that sounded bad. At least it hadn't been out loud.

"How far?" The princess startled her—no one had spoken in hours. The sun had almost set.

"How far to what?" Nao responded with irritation, and Mai frowned, wondering what would happen if Nao decided to resort to her default conflict resolution skill (which was violence). Shizuru frowned, and Mai thought it best to respond before her curiosity was answered.

"A few more hours in the brambles, and then a few weeks to the forest where we start looking, at least walking." The red-eyed girl seemed relieved at the first revelation, and frustrated at the second. "Uh, Nao…it's getting dark. Maybe we ought to camp inside the brambles. It seems really empty in here compared to the woods. Maybe it's safer?" she wondered aloud, and her sister turned to answer.

"Magically so. Likely, the spell wards away most would-be visitors," the princess answered her and Nao snapped her mouth shut angrily. Mai decided they would have to find a village soon and rent a…carriage or something. Being alone together was not going to go well for much longer, she knew. "We shall stay here for the night," Shizuru said, and lavender eyes shifted instinctively to the reddening face of her sister. It sounded like an order, and it was. This didn't bother Mai, as she told herself it was the only way the princess knew to speak to others, but it definitely irked Nao. She approached her sister quickly and touched her shoulder.

"Sounds good. Nao, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" she asked calmly and with a smile as Shizuru tried to get comfortable sitting on the ground, obviously displeased with the situation. Red eyes met hers knowingly as Nao grunted,

"Whatever." Mai led her out of hearing distance of the recently rescued Sleeping Beauty and then crossed her arms and prepared to try and calm her nearly enraged sister. "What?" Nao jerked her arm away from her sister. Mai sighed, unsure how to breach the topic.

"Nao, what is wrong with you?" she finally said, and Nao crossed her arms as well, mirroring her. "I mean, about Shizuru. You look like you're about to deck her," she clarified. The smaller girl raised a brow.

"That's because I am. Are you feeling left out? Would you like me to deck you too? I can do that," she spat, tapping her foot as she glared. Mai raised her hands in surrender.

"No, it's just that…well, we kind of need her help. If you punch her, she might decide to go off on her own and she could get hurt. I mean, she's been out for five hundred years, and she probably doesn't know how to do very much on her own—especially when people aren't just following her orders," she explained, going with logic first. Nao scoffed.

"I bet she doesn't even know how to wipe her own—"

"Nao!" the lavender-eyed girl chastised, "I did not need to hear that."

"Look, it's not my fault she's got a stick up her ass. I am tired of having this chick order me around like I'm her servant. This _can't_ just be bothering me," her sister spat. Mai rolled her eyes.

"It's definitely…weird," she answered honestly, "but she probably doesn't know how else to talk to us. Maybe you should try telling her it bothers you." She thought better of that suggestion at the small smirk on her sister's face, "You know what? Just let me talk to her about it," she amended quickly, and Nao frowned. "Look, just try to be civil, okay? For our brother's sake." The green-eyed girl shifted uncomfortably.

"Did you have to bring him into this? That's a low blow," Nao said, but the taller girl knew she had impressed her point upon her sister. "Yeah, yeah…but you'd better get her to stop with that ordering and hand crap. That's all I'm saying. I can't be held responsible if she keeps provoking me," she added for what Mai knew was her pride's sake and turned to walk back to where they had left the princess. Mai asked her sister to send the princess to where she was and start building their fire. "Well hey, at least we've got all the firewood we need," the shorter redhead grinned on her way, gesturing toward the brambles all around them. Mai just hoped that the red-eyed princess wasn't going to be angry with her.

"Nao…suggested…that I come and speak with you?" the princess asked when she reached the redhead. From the way she had said it, Mai guessed that it hadn't been nearly that polite. Shizuru hadn't been anything but polite and cordial since they had awoken her, but the lavender-eyed girl had a strange feeling that she did not want to be on the receiving end of the princess' anger. However, at this point she wasn't sure what else to do except hope that the red-eyed girl would be understanding.

"Uh, yeah…" she replied, again unsure about how to begin. "You…you might have noticed that…well, um…" the redhead stammered, and for the first time, Shizuru smiled at her. It rendered her speechless. She wondered if she could ever tell that smiling face, 'no'. Then she suspected that very few people ever actually had.

"This is about your sister's apparent dislike for me, is it not?" she went immediately to the heart of the matter, much to Mai's surprise. "If you will tell me what I have done to wrong her, I will apologize immediately for the oversight," the princess said. The redhead had to try a few times before she could answer properly. The red-eyed girl was still smiling at her, after all.

"I don't think you've really…wronged her, so to speak," she finally answered. "It's just that…and I don't mean to upset you or anything, but it's just that when you speak to us, you seem sometimes dismissive and you often…I mean it sometimes seems like…you're ordering us around," she finally managed, and the princess just stared at her. She didn't seem angry, but she did seem sort of confused. At least she wasn't angry. Mai found herself unnaturally afraid at the possibility. Finally, Shizuru gave a small nod.

"I understand. Is there anything else?" she said, and then shook her head. "I meant…was that the only thing I have been doing wrong?" she rephrased, and Mai smiled gratefully, letting out a held breath. It seemed like she did understand.

"Well, um…sorry, again…but I think using your hands to indicate speech or silence really bothers her," the lavender-eyed girl said slowly. "She just really isn't used to that kind of thing, and I think she feels like you're dismissing us or something," she started to explain, but Shizuru held up a hand, and her smile widened and this time, it even reached her eyes a little bit. The expression 'more beautiful with a smile' was often overused in romantic situations, but she found it fit especially well here. Holy cow. On another note, it was the first time the princess had shown a sense of humor or playfulness, and that was certainly a relief to see.

"We will," the red-eyed girl paused and made a face, "My apologies, _I_ will do what I can to stop these habits. Thank you, Mai Grimm. I do not wish to alienate you or your sister in any way; it is simply that I have never behaved in any other way. If I may be excused, I would like to apologize to Nao myself," she finished, and Mai gulped and nodded. She watched the princess walk away and wondered if Nao would be able to handle all of that charm focused on her any better than she had.

* * *

Shizuru walked back toward the campsite that the younger Grimm sister was building, frowning. She simply did not understand why Nao had taken such issue with her manner. Naturally, she had agreed with Mai when her concerns had been voiced, for these two _had_ awoken her, and she found the taller girl's obvious discomfort endearing. She would apologize to the younger sister, but she did not fathom why she should mean it. The fair-haired girl had certainly been nothing but polite to them, and of course she made all final decisions. Who were these but commoners thrust into a world of magic they knew nothing about? The eldest sister seemed to have no qualms with her leadership position. It was only natural, since Shizuru was…

Her thoughts trailed off and she ceased walking as the truth of her situation made itself once again painfully clear. She had already changed her way of speaking, and requested that they call her informally. What more, but she was no princess at all. The maleficent one was queen of these lands, and almost all others. Even be it true that she was technically Queen here, who would remember her to accept her rule? The red-eyed girl had existed in stasis outside this world for half of a millennium, and things would never again be as they once were.

Further, these two girls might know nothing of royalty—if they did not know how they were required to behave in her presence, how could they comply? What right did she have to expect them to? She told herself that she needed to be someone else as she resumed her trek to Nao. She was no longer the first Princess of the Kingdom of Avalon, she was simply Shizuru. Unfortunately, she was completely unsure of this Shizuru's identity—and this idea scared her.

"Where'd my sister go?" Nao eyed her suspiciously as she approached. The princess turned her most well-tested smile upon the shorter girl, and her wide-eyed response tried it yet true.

"She is just behind me," she answered, and the redhead visibly swallowed. "I wanted to apologize to you, Nao Grimm, for being so thoughtless of you today," she tried to sound as sorry as she could, and it appeared to be going over well. Although Nao did seem somewhat confused. "I find you an honest and caring person," she lied, "if a bit abrupt." She watched the girl's face turn red as her hair at the compliment with amusement and continued, "If it seems sometimes that I am treating you like my subjects, I do not mean to do that. It is simply all I know." she explained, and realized this was the most she had spoken to either girl before. The shorter girl had taken a step away from her, and was looking at her as if she were a ghost. That thought gave her a small amusement as well—perhaps she was exactly that. "In the future, I will do what I can to avoid these unsavory habits. I hope that we can get along well in the future." She almost did not manage the word 'unsavory,' as it was too far from her truths, but for now, the truths of these girls took precedent. "Is that satisfactory?" she asked when Nao was silent for what seemed like several minutes. The girl shook herself out of her stupor.

"Uh, right, well…that is…yeah, yeah that's fine," she responded, and Shizuru was surprised that she found this cute. She had not thought it possible. "I'm just gonna…I gotta go get some wood…or something," she stammered, and disappeared as Mai approached the fire.

"She's got to get _what_?" the lavender-eyed girl said incredulously as she watched the redhead fade into the darkness. "That talk must have gone better than I thought," she said with a smirk, and Shizuru looked a question at her. She thought better of this and decided to clarify verbally.

"She said she needed wood. I suppose for the fire…what do you mean?" she puzzled, and Mai covered her mouth as her cheeks lit up with embarrassment.

"Nothing!" she squeaked out, "I mean, yeah…wood for the fire. I wasn't—"

"It's quite all right." The princess silenced her stammering. "I am very tired. Would it be all right if I slept?" the irony of her own statement was not lost on either party, if the small smile on Mai's face was any indication. Her body was totally exhausted though, likely again for not having been used in five hundred years.

"You know, just because Nao wanted you to stop giving orders, it doesn't mean you have to ask us if you can do things. You're still the only one who can tell you what to do," the elder Grimm offered, and she found herself smiling honestly for the second time that day. She made to reply when a bedroll was dropped in her lap by a passing Nao, who dropped herself on the ground unceremoniously across the fire next to where her sister sat.

"I'll bet money one of those things isn't in the bag of tricks you brought with you from your castle," Nao smirked, and the princess cursed herself for having forgotten sleeping necessities, and then wondered if she was being redundant. She was already cursed, what would cursing herself accomplish? She began unrolling the sleeping pad. Truthfully, she hadn't forgotten so much as the thought had not crossed her mind. She hadn't really thought about what travelling like this would entail, and it was not something she had ever expected to do in her life. "Geez, don't look so depressed. It's not like we expect you to be totally perfect," the green-eyed girl said with a touch of satisfaction, and the princess looked at her sharply, offended. The redhead frowned and nearly spat something acidic, but Shizuru climbed into the sleeping pad and turned her back to the girls, signaling the end of conversation.

"I do," she said, honest only when completely exhausted and she did not have to stand and face their scrutiny, and closed her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

The next four days of their trek was extremely uneventful. So uneventful that there had not even been any bathing, and this was slowly driving the red-eyed princess mad. Never in her life had she gone this long without clean clothing and a daily bath. The fair-haired girl was sure she smelled awful, even if she could not smell anything herself. She could certainly smell her two companions' filth, and discomfort was compounded by the effect all of this walking was having on her body. Shizuru went to sleep feeling exhausted, and awoke feeling even more so. The eighteen-year-old princess was not accustomed to this constant level of stress (at least not physical stress), and it was starting to show. The fair-haired girl was becoming shorter and less forthcoming with her speech, and her discomfort must have seemed more and more obvious with each day beyond the first. She had thought for sure that they would encounter a clean body of water daily, but it appeared that her pitiful knowledge of the outside world had once again failed her, and she was tired, hungry, and horribly _dirty_.

It was also irksome that the more frustrated she became, the happier the younger Grimm sister appeared to be. It seemed as if the two might in fact be directly proportionate, and Shizuru did not know what she had done to deserve such amusement at her own suffering. She kept silent, of course, because it would not do to show them weakness if she could help it, or give the fiery redhead the satisfaction of voicing her misery. The princess had been taught from birth that she bore the weight of the well-being of her entire kingdom, and could never display any personal weakness—which included the physical, mental, and emotional displays that these two girls released constantly. She thought that it must be nice for them to have such freedom, and knew that they were unaware of the freedom of honesty she had never been privileged with.

The red-eyed girl mused that she no longer had a kingdom, and therefore was no longer required to hide herself behind a mask of polite elegance. She reflected again on who Shizuru—with no title—might really be. If she were to free herself from this facade, what would she express? She still thought like the princess she had been, and wondered if that erased the point. Perhaps she would cower behind force of habit and rearing for the rest of her very long life, avoiding the expression of a personality she was not sure existed.

On the fifth day around noon, they encountered a sizeable stream that fed into a couple of small pools, perhaps waist deep, one of them underneath a small waterfall. It did not surprise any member of the party when the princess immediately declared,

"We will stay here until tomorrow night," her tone left no room for dissention. It appeared that the Grimm sisters had also been uncomfortable with the state of things, as they had both immediately stripped naked and taken to the water laughing and playing. The princess was not so brash as the Grimm sisters, and first took to a pool of clean water her carrying bag and removed her extra three travelling dresses and washboard. She had never washed clothes by herself, but had seen it done many times and was sure she could imitate it. It turned out that it was a more taxing activity than she thought, but by nightfall she had three clean dresses drying on the fishing line she had strung between trees, and was working on the fourth, covered only by her cloak. She had forced herself to finish this task before doing anything else, but the cloak, she would clean tomorrow morning.

"Damn, she's really serious about those clothes," she heard Nao say, "it took us like an hour to get our stuff done," she continued, and then the red-eyed girl heard a grunt as Mai physically signaled her silence. "What? She's been working her ass off all day just getting them all, like spotless. It's weird," she added, and she heard the elder sister mutter something quietly. The princess was far too tired to be offended. Then, in an audible volume,

"Shizuru? Dinner is ready." The red-eyed princess moved to where they sat, noting that her hands and arms ached like never before in her life. She wondered if her maids felt this ache each day, and wished she had been less demanding a mistress. "Here," the lavender-eyed girl handed her a bowl. The sisters had hunted wild game for them to eat tonight, as they had been surviving on only dried meat since their journey began. She saw more meat stretched on a nearby boulder that would be dried tomorrow to be packed away.

Tonight though, with fresh meat, it seemed they would have some kind of stew. Shizuru began eating, and found that after the disgusting dried meat, even this sludge could be considered appetizing. She mused that if one had never tasted the caliber of food she was accustomed to, they might find this the pinnacle of culinary art. She had nothing negative to say about Mai Grimm's skill when it came to preparation of food, though. Somehow, with the little supply they had, she had made this edible. That was certainly something, and she told the girl just that.

"You may be the most skilled cook I have ever encountered," the princess complimented honestly, and the girl's face reddened as she denied the skill. After she had finished eating, she rose and turned back toward the stream. "I will go and bathe now," she informed them, and headed to the pool under the waterfall.

She removed her cloak and stepped into the chilly water, smiling and closing her eyes in bliss as she sank into it and felt clean for the first time in so many days. The princess had finished grooming herself and was simply enjoying the peace when a splash jolted her upright. It had occurred directly in front of her, as if something had jumped from the top of the waterfall into the pool below. The red-eyed girl had no clue what it had been, and she panicked inwardly—she didn't want to move and startle the animal. When a head poked up a few inches from her chest and she saw glowing, golden eyes, she did the only thing any normal person would do in the situation. She screamed. By the time the Grimm sisters came running, she had already left the water and was hiding behind her cloak that hung from a tree branch, breathing heavily.

"What the hell?" Nao yelled, running to the edge of the water to search for what she was hiding from.

"What's the matter? Are you okay?" the eldest sister approached Shizuru warily.

"Wow—she's really fast!" a childlike voice came from the water, and the three travelling companions stared at the young girl that was walking toward them out of the water. "I hardly saw her move!" she said, and there was an innocence in her voice and manner that allowed the princess to relax. "I didn't mean to scare you if I did. I'm Mikoto!" she introduced herself. Mai was the first to approach her.

"Hi there, I'm Mai," she held out a hand to Mikoto, who stared at it with no understanding. "Ooookay. Well, it's nice to meet you anyway," she said, retracting her hand, "What are you doing out here by yourself?" the short, dark-haired girl seemed to be having a similar effect on the lavender-eyed girl, from the look on her face. This girl just radiated innocence—it was hard to think of her as a possible threat when she was behaving this way.

"Oh, I just went to my grandmother's house!" she replied with a strange amount of mirth, "I do this every year!" she added, "Now I'm on my way back to Briar Rose to meet my brother!" and at this point, Shizuru decided that she said everything with a strange amount of mirth. Mai clapped her hands together.

"Briar Rose is where we're headed. Do you know the way well?" she asked hopefully, and Mikoto nodded enthusiastically. Neither Mai nor Nao seemed to know a great deal about navigation (naturally, princesses were not required to learn these skills), and while they were managing, a guide might take days away from their journey.

This was the first Shizuru had heard of the name of the village they were headed to, as she had not been in the mood to ask. It seemed it was the community that had been named for her. The briars surrounding her tomb were not without a certain ironic humor, since her father had called her 'Briar Rose' sometimes when he was feeling affectionate and she was very young. The child princess had refused to wear any color but pink, and he had told her she reminded him of the sweet briars in the garden. They were flowering plants with pink roses. Mai had told them they were going to a very large community. A lot could happen in five hundred years—it had been a small village when she was young.

"Mmhmm, mmhmm. I do! Will you come with me?" she asked them, and Nao looked between Mikoto and Shizuru with the look of someone who had eaten something bad, and then shrugged. The princess did not mind more company—perhaps it would lessen the focus on herself. It had been irritating the fair-haired girl lately, the girls' tendency to stare. Especially Nao. Naturally, she was used to being stared at. The fairies that had come to her birth celebration had given her the magical gifts of beauty, grace, dance, and song—these four specifically made everything she did draw the attention of a person.

She often wondered what they saw when they stared at her as she could see nothing but herself in the mirror, and she knew that who these people saw was someone different. However, most—especially women—eventually found themselves more used to the presence of the magically-altered princess as time passed and became more…_free_ of her influence, for lack of better terminology. The princess did remember that her father had seen to it that she was surrounded by predominantly women, and most of the men who she had encountered aside from family had seemed forever affected—but they were young, and she was not sure if this would hold true for the general populace. At the time, it had not seemed to matter—she would simply be isolated from men until she was married. Now, she found herself suddenly wondering if this effect would cause them much trouble in the future.

She sensed that a lessening of affectation was happening with the elder sister, but she still found Nao's gaze scratching at her shoulder blades as they travelled. She was not sure if this was due to her own magnetism or the younger girl's dislike of her, but she feared she would say something soon that she could not take back. Likely, the staring only even bothered the princess because the girl had shown such obvious dislike. She had never had that kind of a look directed at her before, and it made her uncomfortable and frustrated. She had never been aware of being disliked at all by anyone other than the maleficent one, in fact.

She noted that Mai and this newcomer, Mikoto, were conversing still, and the lavender-eyed girl was looking at the princess occasionally. When the red-eyed girl realized she was asking permission to accept the young girl, she nodded at the eldest Grimm. She did not see the harm in travelling with the short-haired girl until they reached Briar Rose. It might shorten their trip, after all—and relieve some of the pressure of the Grimm sisters' attention. Perhaps that was only wishful thinking. Shizuru sighed.

"All right, we'll be a team from now on. We're leaving tomorrow night," Mai told the girl, who smiled widely, and then directed her eyes meekly toward the ground.

"I was just wondering, um…I smelled this really good smell, and I wanted to know if, well…" she stammered, and the way Mai smiled at the girl reminded the princess of her mother.

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes!"

* * *

The haughty princess (at least that's how Nao had seen her for the last few days) had gone back to her precious bath while Nao and her sister had returned to the campfire, a really weird little girl in tow. The redhead wasn't sure she should've agreed so quickly to the acceptance of this girl, since she decided that no one had any right to be that happy all the time, but she also welcomed the distraction and navigational skills. Mikoto had only retrieved her clothes when Mai had told her that she wasn't allowed to eat naked, and the item in her hands along with the blood-red cloak the girl was wearing when she came back caused the younger Grimm sister to frown. She was carrying a large picnic basket.

"Really?" she said out loud suddenly, getting quizzical looks from both Mai and the new kid. "Red Riding Hood? _Really_? You just went to visit your grandmother?" she said incredulously, and this caused her sister's eyes to widen and focus on the little girl who was feasting away at their leftover stew.

"Holy crap!" Mai exclaimed, and Nao slapped her forehead. "Well this has to be a coincidence. How could we have read about it if it never happened? She just saw her grandma, right?" Mikoto nodded without stopping her eating, and the green-eyed sister rolled her eyes. Of course the kid wasn't the girl from the story, she'd just been pointing out the weird similarities. "Hey, Mikoto," the eldest Grimm asked with a sheepish grin, "How is your grandma?" the girl spoke with her mouth full,

"Oh, she's dead," she said without affect, and continued eating. The Grimm sisters looked at each other uncomfortably.

"How?" Nao asked, shrugging at her sister's grimace of warning. Mikoto took a few more bites before answering.

"A wolf. It snuck in while I was out getting food and ate her," she said, still not seeming nearly as disturbed telling them this as they were to be hearing it. "I came home and there was a lot of blood, and she was gone. I visit her grave every year," she explained, and the sisters had to take a moment to collect their open jaws from the ground. In the story, Nao remembered, a huntsman had cut Red's grandmother out of the wolf's stomach—but a dead grandmother seemed less ridiculous. Still—

"Well, she can't be the girl from the story," Mai voiced her sister's thoughts aloud, "That story was really old when you found it, and this girl's—what—12? 13?" The yellow-eyed girl looked up at that and frowned.

"That's not right. I'm three hundred and sixty-four years old!" she stated proudly, and Nao had to sit down.

"_What_?" Sleeping Beauty had chosen this moment to reappear, clean and wrapped in her cloak. Still looking annoyingly beautiful. Nao had very intentionally avoided looking at the naked girl when she had run to the water earlier, and was glad of this. It might have broken her brain. Mikoto repeated her previous sentence word-for-word, not having understood that the princess' question was rhetorical. "Yes, I heard you," Shizuru said without much patience, "but that is almost a hundred years beyond a human's normal lifespan. What are you?" this was news to Nao and her sister, who both immediately turned to the red-eyed girl,

"Wait, What?" Nao asked, finding the last five minutes increasingly ridiculous, "What do you mean almost a hundred years? That's it? How long do you people live for?" she ranted, and the princess sighed as if she were _tolerating_ them. It pissed the younger sister off.

"We generally live to a healthy two hundred and fifty years old, plus or minus ten years," the fair-haired girl finally answered, and at the girls' blank stare, continued, "The magic of the Isles allows for much longer life than that of where you come from." This statement caused Mikoto to rise from her seat.

"They're from outside? Wow!" she cried enthusiastically, launching into a series of questions that Nao ignored and Mai did her best to answer while the Grimm sisters both tried to suspend their shock at this development. Neither of them had ever come across any information that suggested such a difference in lifespan, although Nao guessed that if they all lived that long here it might not merit mentioning. The redhead was about to play the twenty questions game by force with the princess when she strode over to their new friend and spoke in a voice that even Nao might have trouble disobeying,

"Silence," she commanded, and the little girl looked at her with wide eyes. "You will tell me what you are, for you are certainly not human," she fixed the girl with a stare that put the jumpy girl back in her seat.

"I don't know," the girl answered with such wide-eyed honesty that even the suspicious green-eyed girl believed her, "but my brother sometimes calls me a cat. I like cats, I feel happy around them. They follow me sometimes," she offered, and then looked back up at the princess, "You could ask my brother what I am when we get to Briar Rose?" she offered, and Shizuru frowned, but seemed satisfied.

"Perhaps we shall," she answered, and moved to her bedroll. "For now, it is best we sleep and allow time to absorb new information," she looked pointedly at Mai and Nao as she said this. Little Red nodded and immediately curled up next to the fire, and really did remind the green-eyed sister of a cat. She actually agreed with the princess—her mind had been sufficiently blown for today. Even if she was irritated at the sudden reappearance of Princess Shizuru with a capital 'P'. She drifted off to sleep with thoughts of crazy mythical catlike creatures from her collection floating in and out of awareness.


	4. Chapter 4

Whew. Sorry if this is all moving too slowly for you guys, and while our heroines aren't ready to meet yet, there will certainly be Natsuki in the next chapter—and we'll meet our maleficent Queen. Or Queen Maleficent. Something like that. :)

* * *

Mai had known that their good luck would run out eventually, and they had been travelling for over a week without any incident before it did just that. She had been cooking dinner for the girls when Mikoto had sat up as if in attention and stared off into the bushes behind her.

"Something's coming," the small girl warned them, and she moved away from the edge of the brush to stand near Mikoto and Nao, who also stood and tensed. Mai had never seen anything like the creature that crashed through the bushes at them moments later. The thing moved with an unrestrained fury that made the elder Grimm weak in the knees, and smelled like carrion and mold. Its eyes shone red in the firelight, and a clawed hand (each claw the size of her upper arm) slashed out from the darkness, cutting through the side of a tree as if it were paper. She caught a glimpse of a beak beneath those glowing eyes before her attention shifted to Red Riding Hood (deciding that she must do a fair bit more than make picnic trips to her grandmother's house) as she leapt very high into the air and delivered a vicious-sounding spin kick to the creature's head.

It stumbled backward a step (quite a feat for a four-foot-tall girl facing a seven foot creature covered in muscle, tooth, and claw) and successfully focusing its attention on her. She led it backward until she neared a tree, ducking, jumping, and otherwise completely dodging the thing's attacks—serving to enrage it even further. Mai caught a glint of something silver in her sister's hand as the younger Grimm slowly snuck into the creature's blind spot as this was happening.

Nao definitely didn't possess the strength Mikoto was displaying or the speed that they had seen Shizuru display in the past, but she made up for it in cunning and ruthlessness. Mai had a sneaking suspicion that if given the motivation, the princess could be as ruthless as her sister, but knew with a strange certainty that their new friend Red Riding Hood was incapable of it. Though she obviously made up for it in other capabilities—it looked like she was winning a fistfight with something straight out of the elder Grimm's nightmares.

Once the catlike girl came near the tree, she spun and ran up the side of it like a hero in some kind of fairy tale (and yes, Mai did appreciate the irony in her own thoughts later that night). Mikoto reached an upper branch and before the creature had time to turn its head upward, she pushed off the branch—with a roar that did not sound human at all—into a back flip, landing with her ankles crossed around its throat and her weight pulling it toward the ground. When it fell backward, the small girl reached for the ground as if to do a hand stand, and then used her ankles to pull the creature (that looked like it weighed a literal ton!) into its own back flip, but this one ended with it stunned and on the ground. Mikoto stepped back as if she would let the creature regain its bearings, but Mai's sister took this opportunity to step forward and quickly slit the thing's throat. The lavender-eyed girl felt the tension drain out of her all at once, and saw Shizuru step out from behind a tree at the edge of their campsite.

"Wha—why did you do that, Nao?" the small girl asked in surprise. The redhead's sudden appearance and dispatch of the creature seemed to have caught her off-guard. The younger Grimm shrugged.

"It was trying to hurt us. Trying to hurt you," she answered simply. "I'm not okay with that," she muttered as she turned to go back to the fire. Mikoto grabbed her wrist, and the green-eyed girl tensed for a fight.

"We can't camp here now that it's dead. I wanted to scare it off. Now other things will come to eat it. We don't want to be here when they do," the little girl explained to them with a frown. "I'm hungry now, and we will have to wait," she pouted as she collected her things and the other girls did the same.

They did not encounter any more trouble before they reached Briar Rose, and the four girls had acquired something of an easy companionship by the time they reached the edge of the city. There was still tension between the princess and Nao, but strangely, the younger Grimm had taken to Mikoto as a friend (a distraction? Mai wondered). The lavender-eyed girl wondered if her sister liked Red Riding Hood because she did not have to search for hidden motive or intention while interacting with the small girl—she really was exactly _who_ she appeared to be—even if they weren't sure _what_ she was.

Shizuru had been even more introspective than usual, although Mai had conversed with her occasionally and found that she was having a sort of existential crisis and could understand this. The elder Grimm realized that she was behaving like a mother of sorts to this group, in much the same way as she had interacted with Nao and their younger brother Takumi since their parents had died. She guessed it was just part of her own personality, and didn't mind smoothing over interactions within the group. If she was honest with herself, she quite enjoyed it.

Mikoto had become more and more excited as they approached and entered Briar Rose, by now mentioning her brother every few minutes. Mai found her happiness contagious, and innocence adorable.

"It's here! Our room is here!" she cried excitedly as they approached an extremely lavish inn and tavern called "The Silver Spoon," and she had giggled at the same time Nao had as they read the name. They walked in the door, and Mai grinned at the disgusted look the woman at the desk had given them. "They're my friends," Mikoto had offered the woman in explanation as the three travelers followed Red Riding Hood up the stairs to her room—or rooms plural, as the lavender-eyed girl discovered upon entrance.

The rooms were pretty extravagant—Mai decided that their little companion's brother must have some kind of money to afford this, and she wondered what kind of person he was. She was hoping no one would argue if they stayed until he showed up. There was a living area with enough seating for all of them, and Shizuru had glanced into a room and turned to them to ask,

"Shall we wait until Mikoto's brother arrives?" Mai agreed with the princess' request-phrased-question and Nao shrugged, "Then may I use this bathing room?" she immediately asked the young girl, who had said of course she could. The princess left to retrieve the inn employees to fill her bath as Mai checked out this bathroom. It had a bath big enough for five people!

"Wow," the redhead said as her younger sister came up beside her and whistled, "maybe they needed the big bath so Mikoto's brother had room to hold her down to get her clean too…" she muttered, remembering the little girl's excessive reluctance to bathe during their journey. Mai had to wrestle the girl into submission each time the smell got too much for them to bear.

"Ew," Nao said to her sister, rolling her eyes. The three of them had relaxed in the living area while Shizuru bathed for an hour, Mikoto devouring all of the hotel's food. When she had begun ordering from the tavern menu to have food brought to their room, Nao had innocently asked if she could have some as well. Their small companion had readily agreed and now Mai wondered if there was any food left downstairs in the tavern. Or alcohol—that part would be all her younger sister's doing. The three occupants of the living area looked up as someone entered the hallway of the rooms.

"Hey, little sister! I was hoping you'd be back—it's time for us to get going!" a deep voice said and the speaker rounded the corner and found two strangers sitting with Mikoto. "Who…?" he started, and Mikoto introduced them.

"This is Mai and Nao Grimm. I met them on the way back from grandma's house! They're very nice. Mai is the best cook ever!" the cook in question found her face reddening a little at the odd introduction, and the man standing in front of them crossed his arms. His impressive arms, the eldest Grimm noted to herself. His hair was dark like his sister's, but a little bit longer. It brushed his eyes, while Mikoto's was very short. His eyes were a similar color to hers as well, but a darker honey color, and he was a bit taller than Shizuru (who was the tallest among them), with a perfectly proportioned body (at least in Mai's opinion—he was broad shouldered and small of waist). His face was smooth and his jaw line was prominent. The elder Grimm also noticed that his lashes were dark as they narrowed his eyes while he examined them.

"I see," he said, and his pause reminded the lavender-eyed girl of their wayward princess when she wanted to think about something before speaking, "then it is very nice to meet you," he finally said, and then moved to pick up a travelling bag from a nearby cabinet and began filling it. "However, my sister and I must get moving immediately," he told them, and Nao glanced at her sister before opening her mouth to speak. Mai decided to speak first, before the younger Grimm got them into trouble.

"Is everything okay?" she asked him, and he looked at her sharply. Mikoto got up and approached her brother.

"Where are we going?" she asked, and he paused to consider the girl. She seemed put off by his behavior.

"I'm not sure, Mikoto, but it is best we leave Briar Rose," he answered her finally, but not before fixing the other two occupants of the room with a glance that told them not to question him about it. The small girl sat back down, looking hurt. Her brother watched her quietly for a few minutes, and Mai had a moment to wonder why Nao was being so quiet. She glanced over at her sister and was not surprised to note that it was because the redhead seemed to be trying to finish an entire bottle of ale before they were asked to leave. The lavender-eyed girl rolled her eyes. "Where is it that you two are travelling to?" his smooth, deep voice startled Mai into refocusing her attention on him. She cleared her throat nervously, wondering how much they should tell him. Unfortunately, Nao decided for her.

"To the Feywild," she answered immediately, narrowing her eyes at the dark-haired man. His eyes widened, and Mikoto jumped to her feet.

"You can't go there! It's too dangerous! Mai will get hurt!" she said vehemently, "I had to fight the bear off for you yesterday! What will you do against a magical bear three times that size and with claws that poison you?" she cried, stomping her foot.

"Good job, Nao," Mai muttered, and it drew the man's attention to her again, "Look, we know it's dangerous…we don't have a choice. We have someone to find who probably lives there," she explained as vaguely but honestly as she could, and marveled at how attached Mikoto had gotten to her in such a short time. Maybe it had been a bad idea to let the girl be their guide. All was quiet for several moments, and the man's face seemed suddenly shocked, as if he had realized something important. Mai was about to ask him about it when Mikoto spoke again.

"I'm going to go with you," she told Mai, and at her brother's stunned look, "I'm going to go with them. I want to protect Mai," she said with determination, and he looked ready to deny her before shaking his head slowly and moving out of the room.

"I'll be back in a moment," he said, and Mai was thinking that she enjoyed watching him walk away when she realized what room he had just walked into. Oops. She looked at Nao, who was smirking at her knowingly.

"I was distracted," Mai admitted as if it hadn't been obvious, "But you did that on purpose," she accused, and the green-eyed girl shrugged.

"Yeah, I did."

* * *

Shizuru had been ecstatic to see the bathtub that rivaled the size of her own in Mikoto and her brother's rooms, and had been even happier to be getting her first real bath since before she'd slept for half a millennia. The princess was pleased that she had been getting along so well with the Grimm sisters and their new friend (Little Red Riding Hood, as the sisters kept calling her). She supposed that the little (in size, certainly not in age) girl was a large part of the reason for this. Her optimism and energy was contagious, and even Nao was not immune—though Shizuru and the sarcastic redhead had avoided one-on-one interaction for the most part to be sure.

The princess heard someone enter the rooms and heard a man's voice, then decided she had spent far more time than was necessary preening in the inn's bathing room. She had finished drying and was crossing the room to collect her dress when the door opened and the man walked into the room. The red-eyed girl froze, unsure of what to do as he did not seem to have noticed her.

"We can't let her go alone," the man said, and Shizuru was sure his voice dropped lower and possessed a gravelly tone when he answered himself, "No, we can't—so we don't let her go at all." So this man, as attractive as he might be, seemed to have some kind of psychological issue. She supposed she shouldn't judge too harshly, as she had her own multitude of issues—but talking to herself was certainly not one of them. "Oh, because kidnapping my own sister is certainly the best choice in this situation," he told himself, and in the deeper voice, "Maybe not, but it's definitely the safest. Don't be such a—" he cut himself off, "Calling me names isn't going to convince me to lock Mikoto up—and you know that'd be the only way to stop her. We have to go with her," he seemed decided, and the deeper voice added, "Well, I do like the redhead with the big—" a change in pitch again, "Stop that. There's also the fact that they're going to search for someone who 'probably' lives in the Feywild. That sounds awfully fa—" he noticed the naked princess at the other end of the room then. "What a pleasant surprise," he said to Shizuru's chest in the deep voice. She frowned, feeling exposed now but still not enough to cover herself. That would imply fear or weakness, both of which she was loathe to display.

"Excuse me," she said simply, and he finally met her eyes, his own widening in response to their color.

"You're excused," he said with a small smirk and at her raised eyebrow, "Well, it _is_ my bathroom." In a higher, smoother voice he said, "I'm very sorry. Pardon me," and turned and left the bathroom. The princess dressed, brushed her hair, and exited the bathroom to sit with the awkwardly quiet group in the living area. "I have asked if it would be all right for my sister and I to join your group and escort the three of you to the Feywild unharmed," the man explained, and Shizuru frowned. "Mikoto and I will go for a walk now, so that you can talk it over," he said, and in the deeper voice, "Though I don't think it will matter to her whether you say yes or no," and he took his sister out of the room. The princess looked at the other two occupants with raised brows. Mai seemed to be considering options, and Nao was smirking at her in a very irritating way.

"He is obviously insane," she pointed out, and the two looked up at her.

"How do you mean?" Nao asked with narrowed eyes, and Mai frowned.

"He seemed really nice to me," the lavender-eyed girl shrugged, and her sister rolled her eyes.

"If you mean 'his ass seemed really nice', then I get you. I don't think you were paying any attention to his character," Nao jeered, and Mai crossed her arms.

"That's not true. He was really polite, considering we were complete strangers bathing and eating on his dime. And he was right, Mikoto's probably just going to follow us anyway," the redhead reasoned, and Shizuru wondered if she should tell them about the strange conversation the man had with himself in the bathing room—then decided against it. She was not entirely sure they would believe her, anyway.

"Well, I guess we can agree about that. Well, as long as they don't know anything, I guess it can't hurt to have extra help," the younger Grimm said reluctantly after a moment. "This guy is a little shady, though—running off in a hurry like this, but…if he's right, and he probably is, then Mikoto's going to trail us anyway," Nao frowned. "We all know Mai's all about mister charming tagging along, but what about the princess?" she looked at Shizuru.

Nao's logic seemed sound on this subject, although neither of the girls realized what kind of trouble this man had the potential to be. Strangely, the red-eyed girl had felt something familiar about the man—at least one part of him. The gravelly voice had been discomfiting, but the smooth, musical voice had seemed extremely familiar if just out of memory's reach. She supposed she was intrigued enough to find out more about him, but she would have to be cautious.

"I suggest we err on the side of caution and watch him carefully," she finally said, and Mai smiled. Nao nodded at her.

"Naturally," the green-eyed girl said. The elder Grimm clapped her hands together.

"It's decided, then. We're a party of five," she said happily, and the princess couldn't help but wonder if they'd made the correct decision.

When Mikoto and her brother returned and they were informed of the decision, Mikoto was predictably overjoyed and attached herself to Mai, while her brother thanked the girls.

"I do not believe I have formally introduced myself," he said with a smile, "My name is Reito," he gave a bow, and the princess replied,

"It is a pleasure." The princess recognized the small smile he seemed to always be wearing, for it was almost identical to her own. This time, she saw a barely perceptible lightening of his eyes just before he replied in his deeper voice,

"The pleasure is _all_ mine." So a part of Reito was raised to participate in politics and was of at least noble blood, and the other part was…what? A pervert? A criminal? She remained unsure. The red-eyed girl caught Nao looking between the two of them with the dawning of some kind of understanding. The younger Grimm was certainly of a suspicious nature, and caught onto subtle communication much more quickly than most people. "However, I do think that it is best we leave immediately. I have taken the liberty of replenishing enough supplies to facilitate our journey to the next village, where we might purchase a carriage for travel to the edge of the Feywild," he said, and Shizuru nodded. "It will be only a two-day journey on foot."

"I understand," she said, fixing him with a look that said she knew that he was in a hurry for a reason probably less than scrupulous, and continued, "Reito, Mai, and Mikoto will meet Nao and I at the edge of town. There are a few items that I still need to purchase, and Nao will check your supplies now in case she or her sister need anything else," she finished, and the younger Grimm immediately went to check Reito's bag. There was certainly no way the princess was leaving without more supplies with which to wash her clothes. They parted after deciding upon a meeting place in the forest just outside of town.

* * *

Nao was absolutely _plastered_. When she had drunk those three bottles of ale in less than an hour, she had been operating under the assumption that they would be sleeping in Briar Rose that night. Fate disagreed, and that irritatingly handsome brother of Little Red's was running away from something. She guessed it was related to money, after experiencing where the pair had been staying. If that was the only problem with the guy, they'd get along just fine. She had a sneaking suspicion that there was something she'd missed in the bathroom—besides a super-hilarious first meeting—because Shizuru looked at the man like he was certifiable.

"I have all that I need now, thank you for accompanying me," the princess said to her cordially, and she rolled her eyes. It had only taken them half an hour to get here—she wouldn't admit aloud that it was her fault for tripping over things that weren't there and getting them sidetracked more than once.

"Soap? The thing you couldn't live without was soap?" she said incredulously. It was true that the red-eyed girl was meticulous about her appearance, even when they were trudging through the forest for days on end. She washed her clothes every time they found water, and seemed infinitely happier when she had her fresh clothes. Maybe her attitude adjustments were worth the weirdness—a miserable Shizuru was much more difficult than an indifferent one. Which was another thing the redhead had observed during their travels—the princess only had those two moods. Nao almost felt sorry for her now, even if she was still attracted to the girl.

Dealing with the princess had gotten much easier for the redhead after she had admitted to herself that she was attracted to her and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. It didn't mean she wanted to act on it, since she knew she didn't want anything more than the acquaintance they were currently sharing (she could barely stand the girl's personality) but the draw was there, and it wasn't going to change. This understanding of things, Nao could deal with.

"I refuse to apologize for my desire to be readily presentable," Shizuru replied, and the younger Grimm rolled her eyes. "There was something else I wished to speak with you about while we were alone, as well," she began, and Nao tensed uncomfortably, wondering if the princess could read minds. Then she giggled, because that would be ridiculous. The red-eyed girl puzzled at her behavior and then continued, "This Reito—there is more to him than you have seen. When he…" she paused uncomfortably, much to the redhead's amusement, "came into the bathroom, I do believe that he was having an argument with himself," she finished, and Nao stared at her.

"Uh…what?" she said, even though she had heard the princess. Kind of.

"He spoke to himself as if he were two separate people," she clarified, and the green-eyed girl raised an eyebrow.

"Well, that definitely explains why you used the word 'insane' earlier. But you still agreed to let him come with us?" she questioned, wondering what Shizuru was thinking.

"I did, for much the same reasons you did. If Mikoto were to follow us anyway, he would naturally be with her. At least with the two of them under our supervision, we will know what he is up to and Mikoto's navigational skills can be put to use," she pointed out, and Nao shrugged.

"Point. Let's go." They headed for the edge of town, taking longer than they should have again because Nao was entirely too drunk. Oh well—at least she was enjoying herself. When they approached the clearing just inside the edge of the forest where Mai and the others were supposed to be waiting, she thought it a little strange that her sister was standing there alone, but stumbled right up to her anyway. "Heeeyy," she drawled, "Where'd—" she started to ask, but a pain in the back of her head sent her to oblivion before she could finish.

When Nao came to, her first thought was that she was still too drunk to be experiencing this hangover. Her head felt like it was going to explode, and when she tried to reach up to grab it (why did people do that, anyway? Like grabbing your head makes a headache feel better?) she found that her hands were tied behind her back. To a tree. She looked to either side of her and found Mikoto and Mai tied with her. Reito was tied to a tree on the other side of the clearing, gazing at them apologetically. In the center of the clearing were four armed men wearing the Queen's insignia, two of them holding Shizuru and the other two going through all of their things. Why wasn't the princess tied up with them?

"Come on, girl, are you going to take that off or do we have to do it for you? At least if you do it yourself, you'll have a nice dress to put back on. You make us do it, and we're going to use a knife," one of the men going through their bags said. Oh. That would be why she wasn't tied up. This could be really bad. Nao felt Mai pass her one of her throwing knives and set to work on the ropes. Her older sister had already reached into her pant leg (she couldn't reach it herself the way she was sitting so she'd kicked her leg up toward Mai's hand) and gotten one of the ankle-sheathed weapons. Unfortunately, her hands were not very steady after the swim she'd taken in booze.

"I will not," Shizuru's calm, steady voice returned to the pissed-off looking men around her as she made eye contact with each one who looked in her direction. Nao thought that she would be very uncomfortable at that tone of voice and look if she were them, but they trudged right on. Well, they probably weren't very smart. One of the other men hit her, and she saw blood in the corner of the princess' mouth. The redhead desperately wanted to see these men dead, and was surprised at her own conviction. She didn't even like the princess, right? Well, that didn't mean she wanted to see her…suffer. At least, not like this.

"All right, Michael—if that is even your name—where is our money?" the leader asked Reito, and he shrugged with a sheepish smile. Nao decided it was meant to be sheepish, at least, but it seemed awfully wolfish to her. His eyes were awfully bright, considering it was dusk now.

"I think you should ask the women over at—" the man nearest him stomped a boot into his face, cracking his nose. Blood streamed down his face, but he seemed undisturbed by this. In fact, Nao thought she heard a cracking sound just _after_ the man turned away and started rifling through Shizuru's bag. The redhead was through the first set of ropes now, and set to work on the second. The men had been pretty thorough about tying them up, and her throwing knives weren't really meant for cutting. She would remedy that at the next village. One of the men had cut away the top layer of Shizuru's dress now, and was starting on the strings of her bodice. The princess still held a flat gaze and perfect posture, and the scene made Nao's stomach churn.

"Ohh, shit," she lamented a moment before she emptied the contents of her stomach onto her lap. "Son of a bitch!" she said when she was finished, as the men in the clearing guffawed at her.

"Can't handle your drinks, girly?" one of them said, and Nao chose not to reply. Freaking great. She had just finished with the second rope when a loud clank came from the ground in front of the man who had been rifling through Shizuru's bag. "What have we here?" he bent over and picked up—a broadsword? The princess had been carrying around a _broadsword_? What the hell? This thing looked like it was made of pure gold, and had runes and magical symbols covering both the hilt and the gold sheath it was in. When the man tried to unsheathe it, the symbols emitted a white glow, and she watched his muscles bulge as he failed. "What the—it won't come out!" he said, and the other two men moved to try as well, the third dragging over Shizuru while maintaining a firm hold on her. Her eyes shot to Reito when she heard him exhale loudly. He looked like he knew something.

"Is that—" he began quietly, and the princess cut him off.

"It can only be _drawn by the blood of which it was forged, and by the hand of the High King for whom it was made_," she said with authority, drawing the attention of the men. Reito nodded in understanding. Nao had read these words before—somewhere. If her head wasn't swimming so badly… "If you'll hand it to me, I can draw it for you," she said with what Nao thought was the fakest innocence she had ever heard. "My father forged it. It is worth quite a bit of money." Again, these men weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and the one holding it immediately passed it to the princess before the leader could voice his protests. Before he could finish reaching for the weapon, Shizuru had drawn the most beautiful sword Nao had ever seen and plunged it into his chin.

It came out through the top of his head, and she pulled it out just as swiftly as she had drawn it, arcing it around to decapitate the other man who had charged for her as she'd drawn it. His blood splattered Shizuru's torn bodice, and the younger Grimm saw the ghost of a smile on the girl's face as she turned to the other two men who had drawn their swords. The look on the princesss' face as she disposed of the other two as quickly as she had the first was…it was like she was enjoying herself. It was an expression that Nao did not ever want to see again, and all of this had happened in less than a minute. She heard someone run away, guessing it was a fifth soldier that had not been in her line of sight before, and saw the princess take a step in his direction before glancing down at her bodice, freezing, and dropping the sword in shock. Nao finished the ropes, so that the three of them could get up now. None of them did. Everyone was staring at the blood-covered princess. Then, Nao remembered the prophecy she had read—a prophecy for her own country.

"Excalibur," she breathed, and then vomited a second time. This time though, she managed not to do it on herself.


	5. Chapter 5

There was a red star next to the moon that only 13 people in the entire world could see—to the rest, it was invisible. Alyssa's mother had told her of the creation of the Shimmering Isles many times when she was a child. The Star was where magic came from, and it seemed to have a kind of intelligence. No one knew what it was like; if there were people up there, or perhaps creatures that were very different from those in this world. She wondered most often if it was another world itself; a world where gods lived.

Once upon a time, her mother had told her, there was no magic in this world. One day, part of the Star fell into the sea—still, no one could see it. They saw the water move, and the waves crash into the shore, but they did not see the new land that had taken residence in the world. When they built ships to explore the world, they felt the urge to turn away from the alien land, even without knowing it existed, and so very few stumbled upon it. None returned, if they did.

Then, thirteen men and women fell into a deep slumber, woke up in this new land, and there were beautiful homes waiting for each of them. There was also a note written in their language. It told them of the Star and that they had been selected from their kind to inherit this land. The letter also told them that they had been given the gift of magic, and it would pass through their blood to one child in each generation. They could now see the Star. It told them of the crystal caves, where the future could be divined, and prophecy given. It told them of the Feywild, filled with creatures that existed nowhere else in this world. What it did not tell them was why they were given this gift, or what they should do with it.

The thirteen original inhabitants of the lands they named the Shimmering Isles left to retrieve their families, and returned to live there. They brought workers and craftsmen who built cities, dividing the lands amongst themselves—eventually these cities became kingdoms as time went on and the thirteen realized that they were still young and healthy while others grew old and died. (Eventually, they found that they too would grow old and die, but at three times the length it took for those from the old country to do so.) They also had power that they had not had before—it was different for each of the original thirteen.

The Queen wondered if there was anyone left alive who still knew this story or the truth of it as she moved her eyes from the window where she had been observing the Star to the manacles hanging from the ceiling above her bath. Her mother had known it so well because she had been a teenager when her mother disappeared suddenly, to return the following month with a fantastic story and an amazing new home. Five thousand years ago, her grandmother had been queen of the kingdom of Fuuka, and it had been ripped from her by twelve men and women who thought they knew best. In less than a year, her granddaughter would be Queen of the Shimmering Isles.

Alyssa stood, careful to hold her hair away from the tub as she got out (she hated to get blood in her hair as it was so difficult to clean out) and moved to her second bath of water to rinse herself off. Her mother had made sure she had the tools with which to gain at least partial immortality—even if the methods were morally questionable. The woman had given birth and raised Alyssa only to take back this land from those who had stolen everything from their family. There were only two small kingdoms now that rebelled against the Queen's armies, and once they were taken, her purpose would finally be within reach. She had used prophecy to remove threats to her goal, and it had worked wonderfully. It had taken some time to realize that she was the oft-mentioned Maleficent One, but once she had, everything had gone smoothly and according to plan.

After she finished cleaning and her servants dressed her, she headed for her throne room. Miyu had requested an audience, which was odd—she usually remained where her presence was required the most, which meant something important had changed if she had left the front lines of the Queen's final battles. Miyu's life had been tied magically to her own, and she was born and raised to remain forever at Alyssa's side. She was the only person the Queen trusted. She was waiting in the throne room already when the blonde woman arrived.

"My Queen," her voice said without inflection as she took a knee. It was a curious quality that the pale woman possessed—she never showed any emotion on her face or in her voice. Alyssa thought it probable that she did not feel emotion often. The blonde woman had seen her show it on few occasions, but only to her and when she was in trouble.

"We are alone, Miyu. You may call me by my name," she informed her confidant as she sat in her throne. "Why have you returned?"

"I received a report from Briar Rose, Lady Alyssa. As you requested, we have been keeping an eye on the Prince to be assured that he does not plan to do anything foolish—and this is still the case. However, he recently connected with a group of travelers that came from the north. Among them was a woman with pale hair and crimson eyes who quoted prophecy, spoke as royalty, and dispatched four of your men before they could draw their swords," she finished, casting a worried glance up at the blonde woman.

"There is nothing north of Briar Rose aside from Avalon's capital. The princess is…that is impossible. I would have known if the curse were broken," she said angrily, casting out a net with which to sense it. She felt the curse still in place, but it was no longer in Avalon where it had been for the past five hundred years. "It has moved. She is near the Feywild," she said incredulously, "Why does she travel to the Feywild?" she wondered aloud. Perhaps to find a method of breaking her curse? That seemed likely, except that she should not be awake and moving in the first place. The Queen had stopped time for Shizuru of Avalon, and if the curse was still in place while she was awake…she could be a force to be reckoned with. Worst of all, she would not be able to sense the curse's location once she entered the forests. There was so much magic in that place that it would interfere with her senses.

"What would you have me do?" Miyu asked for her orders as the beautiful blonde scowled.

"You will find out under what power the princess awoke, and you will bring me the best huntsman in the land. I need you on the front lines to finish with my enemies, so find me someone who can track her into the Feywild," Alyssa demanded, and with a curt nod, Miyu excused herself. The Queen was glad that she was a woman of few words, as the moment she was gone, she stood and approached the mirror opposite her throne angrily.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is fairest of them all?" she began, and the boy with pale hair and strange, fuchsia eyes appeared in the mirror with a wide grin.

"Still you—just my luck. Well, well. I thought you wouldn't be needing my help anymore, my Queen. I thought I had, what was it? Served my purpose?" he said, and as always, she could hear a laugh in his voice. It grated at her nerves. She chose to ignore him.

"How is the princess of Avalon running around killing soldiers while my curse is unbroken?" He looked as surprised as she was, but she knew he was an excellent liar. He could not lie if asked a direct question by her, however. He was bound by the magic of the mirror to answer truthfully to what he called 'the fairest of them all'. She was not entirely sure what granted a person that title, but her mother had obtained it for her and ensured she would have his invaluable information when it was needed. This title had been threatened once before by the same girl who now walked around as if not frozen in time, but she had seen to both the end of that and the prophecy-named 'charming prince' who could have threatened both to break her curse and derail her main goals. Two birds with one stone, one might say.

"Oh, my. That is an excellent question," he said with narrowed eyes and a toothy smirk. Alyssa crossed her arms.

"Answer me. How is it possible for Shizuru of Avalon to be awake while my curse remains unbroken?" the boy frowned.

"Nice phrasing. There is only one way to break the curse, and it would break it completely or not at all. Aside from that, there is almost no magic powerful enough to affect that curse." He said, and the blonde ground her teeth together.

"You said 'almost'. What magic could affect it?" she directed. He sighed.

"I remember when this used to be fun," he said, throwing up his hands in mock surrender. "With brute force, your curse could be—oh, 'cracked,' we'll say. The amount of raw energy that would require would have to come directly from the Star," he finished with an expectant grin.

"_What_?" he repeated his last sentence with the same smugness, and she shook her head. "The Star did this?" she said just before she realized the answer.

"No, two or more of the thirteen did this. One wouldn't be quite enough. But two, if given direction, could damage that curse," Nagi said, and Alyssa's face contorted in rage. "You had better be careful there, My Queen, or those wrinkles might not go away until your next delivery of girls," he taunted, and she spun to leave the room. She couldn't stand his presence any longer—or the presence of anyone. The thirteen were coming for her, as they had come for her mother—or this was an unfortunate coincidence. Either way, things did not bode well for Alyssa.

* * *

Six days later, Miyu returned with not the best huntsman in the land, but the best hunts_woman_. The Queen could not see her face clearly as she knelt before the throne, but neither did she care to. Miyu always did exactly as she asked, and she did not doubt for a moment that this was the best tracker in the kingdom. She did notice a perfect figure under the fitted leather armor, and catch a glimpse of dark hair and emerald green eyes under the hood of the cloak she wore before her head dropped to avoid unseemly eye contact.

"You 'requested' an audience, your highness?" the woman asked with a deep voice that she found difficult to attach a word to other than sensuous. Alyssa did not miss the irritation in that voice, but chose to ignore it. She had been busy for the past two days buried in recorded prophecy, searching for holes in her knowledge. So far, she had found nothing, and it was rare that she found herself so frustrated. Her entire life revolved around the goal she was so close to reaching, and having Shizuru running free was a liability she could not afford. The Queen was extremely distracted of late.

"Yes. I need you to find someone for me," she began, and she heard the huntswoman huff in annoyance. "She and her travelling companions have entered the Feywild, and you are the person most capable in my kingdom of bringing her to me," she finished. She would not ask the woman to kill the princess, first because she had a sneaking suspicion that the girl was turning out to be more than just old royalty, and second because she did not want a crisis of conscience on the huntswoman's part to get in the way. The woman in question was silent for the space of a few moments.

"Why do you need her?" the Queen was thankful that at least the woman had not tried to refuse her immediately. If she had, Alyssa would most likely have kept her in the dungeon until the next time she needed to reinforce her youth spell. It would be troublesome to find another huntsman of high caliber in a short time—she wondered briefly if the moments of consideration the huntswoman had taken were on precisely that subject.

"It is none of your concern," she answered simply. It was not the woman's place to know her motives or reasons, only to follow commands.

"What will you do with her?" the woman asked after another pause, and Alyssa found herself becoming impatient.

"I simply need to speak with her," she lied smoothly, "but it is regarding a matter of an urgent nature—and it is life and death," she added (at least that much was true). "You must understand that I required the best in the kingdom because this is very important for everyone in it." She added, hoping to appeal to the woman's sense of duty or righteousness. The tensing she saw in the huntswoman's shoulders told her that she had done a good job of it. The brief nod she saw the green-eyed tracker give to herself told the Queen she did not need to convince her any further.

"All right. Tell me, who is it I'm looking for?"

Alyssa began to give her the information she would need, and after the huntswoman had left to begin her search, the Queen decided that there had been something strangely familiar about the dark-haired girl. She simply could not place it. She returned to her library to resume her search.

* * *

"There you are, Duran," Natsuki said with a wide smile as her companion rounded a massive oak tree to leap into her arms. This sent her crashing to the ground, of course, since Duran was a black wolf the size of a small horse. They rolled around playing together for a while before they calmed down enough to set off on their 'quest'. She had missed him terribly, but she wasn't so stupid that she'd risk both their lives by letting him leave the Feywild with her. She'd never seen anything like him, and she knew that most of her own kind would consider her best friend a monster. In fact, with the exception of a few needed human supplies, she hardly left the Feywild at all.

The man who raised her had chosen to live in the Feywild alone when he was a young man. He told her sometimes that he was tired of other humans and their pettiness—their darkness. He loved the purity and simplicity of nature, and the Feywild was one of the few places on the Isles where nature was left relatively untouched by humans. He also told her frequently that he was not her father, but she couldn't help it if she thought of him that way anyway. She couldn't remember anything from before she was around eight years old—from before the time that Kruger had found her.

He told her the story many times as his age caught up with him—Duran had come from the woods carrying her like a cub to his doorstep; both of them covered in blood (he'd remarked that later he had checked them both and discovered the blood belonged to neither of them) and howled until the huntsman had taken her into the house. The wolf had waited at the door for days without food. Even when Kruger had tossed part of his latest catch to the animal in a fit of pity, it had refused to eat until Natsuki had woken up and eaten herself.

When she woke, she had remembered her own name, but nothing else. She was sure that she knew Duran, but had no idea how. At any rate, they had grown up together, and Kruger had taught Natuski how to be a part of nature, rather than a plague upon it. He was gruff but very kind, and she had loved him. He had died two winters past, and Natsuki and Duran had left his cottage and travelled aimlessly since then. She had felt restless without him there anymore, and couldn't stand the memory of his passing any longer.

Three days ago, a strangely emotionless woman had appeared with a full contingent of the Queen's soldiers to tell her that her presence was requested at the capital. The idea that they had come looking for her specifically had thrown her until the woman, Miyu, had explained that they were looking for someone with her talents. Apparently, even though no one knew Natsuki's name, the lone huntswoman who lived in the Feywild was the only recommendation anyone in the villages on the border had to offer with the skill set they needed. She'd been tempted to refuse the audience, but while she knew she could outrun the Queen's men indefinitely, she found that she didn't really want to. She liked her easygoing life, and didn't want to do anything to mess that up. So she went.

Now she wondered if she had made the wrong decision—it was too late to run now. After meeting the woman, she knew that she would do this or spend the rest of her life in hiding. Natsuki had encountered all manner of beast in her life, but the only time she had ever felt fear was in the presence of Queen Alyssa. There was something horrible about the woman that was impossible to put into words. Now she thought that if she had run before accepting the audience, the Queen might have forgotten all about her—but after agreeing in person, the terribly beautiful Queen would ensure that she suffered before her death if she did not deliver. It also didn't hurt that the Queen had told her it was important to the lives of the people living in the kingdom. She wished that she knew what that meant, but if people were in danger…well, she couldn't allow anyone to suffer if she could help it.

"Well, it looks like it's off to the north for us. We've got someone to find," she told her companion. The wolf whined as they headed on their way, and Natsuki laughed. "Oh, stop complaining. It's not like we had any plans anyway," she told him. The girl she was supposed to bring to the queen was travelling with three other women and a man. She had physical descriptions of them (some had strange hair and eye colors that she had never seen before in humans, like this 'Shizuru' was supposed to have eyes the color of blood), and knew that they had entered the Feywild from the northern edge, while the capital was to the east. She was hoping that she would intersect their trail within two or three days—once she caught that trail, it would be a short time before she caught up to them.

It was almost exactly two days later that Natsuki located the trail she was searching for. She was glad she had picked up supplies in the capital—not having to pause to hunt for food had shortened her trek quite a bit. She surmised that the party was three days in front of her, and began following their trail. She noticed after the second day that this group did not seem to have a particular destination in mind, as the trail had turned twice. She wondered if they were searching for something. Duran was also behaving strangely—he seemed to recognize one of the group members' scents, and he didn't like it. Natsuki was becoming uneasy about this 'quest' she was on.

On the third day, she found that not only was she still a half-day behind the group, but that their trail had crossed another group's trail within hours of each other. This second group was larger, and it looked like some of them were being dragged. This piqued the huntswoman's curiosity, and upon further search, she found what looked to be dragon tracks. This surprised her—dragons were rare in the forested parts of the Feywild—they stuck mostly to the mountains and cliffs. This also frustrated her, because dragons usually took prisoners only to eat at a later time, and she felt driven to help them if she could.

For as long as Natsuki could remember, she had felt obligated to life. She wasn't sure how else to put it, but if someone or something was suffering, she felt driven to protect it. She did sometimes have to kill animals to eat (although she did it as infrequently as possible), though. Even when she did kill to eat, she always verified that the animal was without young to care for, and she always thanked it for giving its life so she could continue living. That last part, however, had been something she had learned from Kruger. He had taught her that all life, including the human animal, had to take other life to survive. The trick was to always remember that, and never take any life without necessity.

However, Kruger had not shared her need to help things that were in some kind of danger—that seemed to be all Natsuki. She could not turn a blind eye to human suffering especially. Kidnappings, robberies, and things like that were pit traps for the emerald-eyed huntswoman. She always felt the need to help—this was probably where she had gotten her the reputation in the surrounding villages that had sent her to the Queen. So, she followed this new trail. It was only a couple of hours old, and she hoped it wouldn't take her too far from the group she was hunting. She supposed it couldn't hurt much to take this detour, since the party she was tracking didn't seem to know where they were going anyway. Duran pushed her behind with his head, causing her to stumble. She spun around and glared at him as he huffed.

"I know, damnit. But what am I supposed to do?" she stormed off, and the wolf shook himself and followed. He often shook out his coat when he was frustrated with Natsuki. They moved quietly as the tracks became fresher and eventually came upon a small cave. The cavern was small enough that Natsuki would have to get on hands and knees to enter, but she could hear voices inside—humans, arguing.

"This is all your fault! I TOLD you that you wouldn't get far, but you didn't listen! Now look what you've done to us!" one female voice cried. The huntswoman stripped her larger weapons (her sword, quiver, and bow), wrapped them up, and gave them to Duran.

"You wait here, Duran. I'll call you if I need you," she told the wolf, and he whined. "You gotta be my lookout," she grinned at him, and he scratched at the dirt, shook himself, and lay down near the entrance. "That's it," she told him, and crawled inside. The arguing voices continued as she got closer.

"So, define this 'far' for me. How far is 'far?' Because we totally made it several miles out before it caught us. Another couple of hours and we'd have been long gone," a deep, but also decidedly feminine voice answered. Natsuki knelt and began crawling into the dark as she heard the sound of something hitting flesh, "Ouch! Hey, come on—I was just giving her a hard time. I know I screwed up. It'll never happen again," the voice spoke, and the huntswoman decided this woman always had a smile in her voice.

"A great sentiment, except that we'd have to get out of this somehow before we could even worry about this happening again," a third, much lighter voice added. Natsuki could see lights ahead now, and hear the sounds of digging. A mine?

"Girls, girls. There's no need to fight—we need only ask the Lord to show us the way, and we will get out of this," a fourth voice added—another woman.

"Yeah, right," came a sullen fifth voice. Natsuki couldn't decide if this one was male or female, but she found out as she came around the corner to find an opening in the cavern large enough for her to stand in. There were seven women digging in the cave for diamonds (there was a small cart of them in the center of the shaft). The odd thing about these seven women was that they were tiny. She would call them dwarves, except that they had perfectly normal-looking proportions—they were just much smaller. Just the perfect size to walk into this cave unhindered by the size of the opening, she thought with a smirk. A punishment of sorts? She began putting the parts of the conversation she'd heard together. The tracks she'd followed had been normal-sized. She knew dragon magic was powerful, but…well, she hadn't ever seen anything like this.

"Who's there?" the fifth voice called out suddenly, startling the huntswoman. She'd been very quiet—this girl was good. She approached the bend in the cavern where Natsuki was with a dagger in each hand that the emerald-eyed girl had not seen her draw. She seemed very young, and spoke and dressed like a boy.

"Calm down, I just came to see if you were all right," she spoke and moved around the corner to meet her with hands up in placation. "I came across your trail a ways back and it looked like you'd been captured," she explained honestly.

"She came to rescue us!" The girl with the smiling voice shouted suddenly. "My hero!" she threw her hands up in mock celebration. The way the group crowded around her when Natsuki had made her presence known suggested that this was their leader. The girl was very tall (at least, she was more than a head above the other tiny people), and was—androgynous; at least she guessed that was the best way to describe her. She wore men's clothes and had a short, messy haircut—but the clothes were also tight and left little doubt that she was a woman. She had dark hair and dark eyes, but the effect was lightened by the ever present smile in them. She seemed to be of a very likeable character, which meant that Natsuki would probably find her irritating. She sighed as the leader approached her with little caution. The 'boy' was still alert though, and had very sharp eyes.

With the exception of two of the women she could not see clearly in the dim light, the rest flanked the girl as she approached. Some kind of mercenary group, perhaps? They were dressed to travel. "So who might you be, oh brave rescuer?" she paused when she could see the huntswoman's face, "It's our lucky day! The knight in shining armor is also the fairest maiden of them a-" she was cut off by a cuff to the head by the girl walking nearest her. This girl was conventionally pretty and wore a travelling dress. She also wore a smile, as if this type of violent interaction was normal. "Ouch. All right, all right," she held up her hands in surrender and then extended her hand to the huntswoman. "I'm Chie—you might have heard of me," she stood straight with a grin. The emerald-eyed girl had not heard of her, but it was not surprising. She interacted socially with very few people on purpose. She took the offered hand and shook it.

"Natsuki, and no, I haven't heard of you," she answered flatly. She saw the right-hand woman roll her eyes as Chie huffed and crossed her arms.

"Of _Locksley_. Chie of Locksley," she said, and then the huntswoman recognized the name. Her eyebrows went up.

"Robin Hood?" the emerald-eyed girl had heard that name many times when she had gone to the villages on the east edge of the Feywild near Nottingham. The brigand in front of her stomped her foot like a child.

"Nobody got my joke. It's my thing, right? We're 'robbin' the hood. The hoods. The rich people. I make one joke and nobody remembers my name anymore!" she pouted, and Natsuki found herself smirking unintentionally at the childish display.

"I still say it's because you're a woman. No man wants to have a woman for a hero," the boy said, and she seemed to have relaxed into the conversation. She spared a glance to Natsuki. "My name is Akira," she introduced herself.

"That might be a kind of compliment," another woman stepped forward from behind Chie. She also wore a dress, but it didn't look like one made for traveling. She had very kind eyes. "My name is Akane. It's nice to meet you," she introduced herself with a smile. Natsuki nodded at her in greeting, and again at a nun who introduced herself as Sister Yukariko of the Tuck Monastery.

"If only she would take it as one," the right-hand girl added with a smile at Chie as she patted the fuming girl's arm, and the way they interacted reminded Natsuki of married couples she had seen in the villages. Except that they were both women—although she had heard of same-sex couples, she had never seen any and didn't spend much time thinking of such things. She had never had that kind of interest in anyone. "I'm Aoi. Chie called me John all night at a tavern once on a dare, so when they talk about Robin Hood, I get to be—"

"Little John," Natsuki answered for her. This surprised the huntswoman, as "Little John" was supposed to be a warrior whose strength matched Robin's skill as a marksman. She could buy that a woman like Chie was good with a bow, but this Aoi was slightly built. There was no way she could crush a man's skull in one hand. Obviously rumors were always exaggerated, but this was a little much. She wasn't one to advertise confusion or disbelief, so she simply shrugged.

"Yes, that's right," Aoi smiled, and she heard Akira put away her weapons when Chie leaned against the wall of the cavern.

"Well, it looks like we pissed off a dragon," she started with no more introductions. "It cast some sort of spell on us to shrink us. This way we could fit in its tiny stupid cavern and mine diamonds for it—and we wouldn't run away because he's the only one who can fix us," she explained, and Natsuki frowned.

"So he plans to turn you back to normal? After how long?" she asked. Maybe they did something to upset the dragon, and he was punishing them fairly—or maybe, he was just playing with his food. Her father had told her never to trust anything a dragon says.

"Oh, ten, twenty years," Chie answered. That was a bit steep. Her vote was leaning toward the 'playing with his food' thing.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"Oh, well, we just found this treasure lying around. You know, no one around—we had no idea it belonged to a dragon," she started, and one of the women in the back of the cave stormed toward them and into the light. She was as tall as Chie, and had reddish-brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"I TOLD you it belonged to a dragon! You ignored me! You ignored me for an HOUR!" she yelled at her, "You promised to escort us to—to—" she stopped talking when she saw Natsuki's face for the first time, and it unnerved the huntswoman. She was being stared at as if she were a ghost.

"Oh, my," came a quiet voice from behind them. Natsuki saw a mousy girl wearing scholars' glasses staring at her with the same amount of shock.

"It's you," the redhead said with what the huntswoman decided was awe. "You're alive—you're—"

"This is not the place or time," the mousy girl cut her off. The huntswoman narrowed her eyes. This situation was beginning to become very uncomfortable, and she had to hold her temper in check. She did not spend much time with people, and as a result, she was confused by behavior that was anything but straightforward. She didn't know how to deal with this aspect of people. She took a step backward.

"Who are you?" she said defensively, her body tensing for a fight. The redhead appeared to shrink.

"My name is Midori, and the girl back there is Yukino. I promise, we're friends," she told the emerald-eyed girl.

"I don't have any friends," the huntswoman shot back. She realized her mistake when she saw pity in the eyes of several of the cavern's occupants. "I don't _want_ any friends," she added defensively. The redhead frowned.

"Now look," she started, but Yukino approached and silenced her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Natsuki, I promise that we will answer any questions you have later. For now, it would be best if we found a way to reverse this spell so that we can all go our separate ways." The mousy girl said, and something about the way she spoke relaxed the huntswoman. She felt she could trust the girl, and that made her even more sure she should distrust her. It didn't matter, though, because she still needed to help these women and she could try to get answers out of them later. They seemed to have recognized her—but she definitely had not seen them before. It brought up questions about her blank past and made her stomach turn. Maybe they just thought she was someone else? That had to be it. She was getting more nervous by the minute, and didn't want to be around these people anymore.

"Do you know a way to do that?" she asked the girl, who shook her head.

"I don't. But—"

"Where is the dragon?" Natsuki asked, straightening her cloak.

"At the other end of this cave," Chie answered, "Why?" The huntswoman did not answer; she simply started walking in the dragon's direction. Midori stood in front of her to block her path. She glared coldly at the woman, but it did not move the redhead. That irritated the dark-haired girl. No one save Duran would stand fast after that look. She had often considered it her greatest weapon against humans—since she didn't kill and empty threats were useless.

"What are you doing? Are you going to try and kill a dragon yourself? That's impo—"

"Kill him?" Natsuki squeaked suddenly, causing everyone in the cave to startle, including the huntswoman herself. Her face reddened in embarrassment at her own outburst and continued, "Of course I'm not going to try and _kill_ him. What's wrong with you?" The emerald-eyed girl had been shocked, as the thought of killing the dragon had never crossed her mind. She often forgot that killing frequently crossed the minds of everyone else. So her shock turned into anger. "He didn't kill you—he could have, but he didn't. Why does everyone just jump straight to killing things that aren't like them?" she roughly pushed Midori out of her way, who seemed too stunned to do anything but move.

She was almost at the opposite exit of the cavern into the next tunnel when a hand touched her shoulder. She reacted violently, grabbing the hand and twisting to move the attached body into a throw, but found that the arm did not twist. It didn't even move. She turned to find Aoi smiling at her.

"Even if you don't plan to hurt the dragon, it might plan to hurt you. My conscience won't me let you run off to certain death like this," the girl told her. She frowned, trying the glare again. Aoi did shrink slightly, her grip loosening a bit, but she did not step away. "If you aren't going to kill it, what _are_ you going to do?" The huntswoman huffed in annoyance.

"I'm just going to talk to him, and see if I can get him to let you go. That's all," she said with a roll of her eyes, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Aoi looked at her blankly.

"Um…"

"Do not try to hurt my friend," the huntswoman called back to the rest of the women, "He won't hurt you," she warned them before she gave a piercing whistle. They stumbled out of the way as Duran bounded through the tunnel and skidded to a stop at Natsuki's heel carrying her bag. She reached in and reattached her sword to her hip and her quiver to her back. As she strung her bow, she smirked up at Aoi. The girl was looking at the wolf, terrified. "If he doesn't feel like talking, then we'll kick his ass," she told her, "But there will _not_ be any killing. Do not follow me." Aoi moved away and the huntswoman and her companion entered the tunnel.


	6. Chapter 6

The cave seemed to be getting larger the further in they went, and Natsuki was aware that they were also going deeper underground as the tunnel had been sloping downward from the beginning. She wondered how the dragon got in and out of the cave. There was no way it could fit the way she had come.

Then they encountered the first split in the cave. The juncture had four different tunnels coming off of it, but Duran saved them both time by nudging her in the right direction immediately. She was often very glad of her canine companion—she knew how to track, but his nose made things much quicker. Two of the tunnels had appeared to slope upward, so Natsuki decided that any of those could be an entrance—the dragon had just wanted to shrink the women for that particular vein of diamonds. Probably also for his own entertainment. Kruger had told her that dragons had a strange sense of humor. The tunnel Duran had pointed out, however, was still a downward slope. Natsuki was quickly beginning to dislike the deep underground. It felt nostalgic in a very negative way—like she had been here before. Of course she hadn't been here before, but in the dark everywhere looks the same. The dampness in the air and the claustrophobic feeling tugged at the edge of a long-forgotten memory.

"_We'll see how fair you are when you're starving to death,"_ a voice stunned Natsuki still. A memory? She recognized the voice from more recent memory—it was the Queen's voice. Her voice, but blurred by time. Natsuki had never seen the Queen before a few days ago…had she? Duran nudged her side with concern, and she offered him a weak smile before continuing forward.

"Duran, something…something is going to happen soon. Maybe…maybe it's happening already, with those weird girls back there," she told both her companion and herself. "The past is coming for me, I can feel it," she muttered bitterly. Natsuki didn't care for her past. She liked her present with Duran, as a huntswoman, enjoying the freedom of living in the Feywild. Duran walked closer to her—she guessed he could sense the unease in her voice. Although, sometimes she wondered if he could really understand her words. He seemed as intelligent as another human to her. Sometimes moreso.

A couple of hours of hiking through twists and turns in the oppressive atmosphere saw the two companions entering a room so large and well-lit it seemed like they had stepped back outside the cave. The fact that they had been going pretty consistently downward told them otherwise, but it was disorienting to say the least. The room was absolutely packed with treasures that the abundant torchlight reflected from to create the bright light.

"It seems I have a visitor," a low, rumbling voice greeted them. Duran crouched low next to the huntswoman, growling quietly. Natsuki felt very small at the sound of the voice before she even looked up to see the massive dragon perched on a dais at the center of the room. The dragon was red, which Natsuki remembered meant it could breathe fire. She hoped it would at least give pause before killing her with the fire, since that would also melt all of its gold. Dragon's fire was different from regular fire in that it burned hotter and for longer. It could melt steel armor if it wasn't magically enhanced, as well as stone.

"I just wanted to talk to you," she started. "May I come closer?" she asked, and the dragon appeared surprised at her request.

"Of course," it said, and flashed rows of razor sharp teeth in what she guessed was supposed to be a smile. It looked like a snarl to the huntswoman, but then again, she'd never met a dragon before. She shouldn't judge. She moved to the edge of the dais, not unaware that Duran had refused to come any closer than the entrance. He did look torn, though, when she moved forward anyway.

Trolls looked pretty bad on the outside, too, but she'd had a very good friend as a child who happened to be a troll. She couldn't remember what his real name was, but she'd mispronounced it as Tom, and it had stuck. He'd protected her from human bandits once when she had wandered away from Kruger and Duran, and she had visited him every day for months. If she had ever had a friend besides Duran, Tom was it. When she was around 11, he'd been killed by a group of adventurers fancying themselves knights. She'd found him strung up on a tree in several pieces. Humans could sometimes be far worse than those they called monsters.

"It's nice to meet you," Natsuki started. "I am Natsuki, daughter of Kruger," she introduced herself formally and with a small bow. Dragons were supposed to be pretty formal creatures, likening themselves to human royalty. Or maybe, Natsuki pondered, human royalty likened themselves to dragons. That was actually more likely, since dragons were such an old race. The dragon straightened itself when she mentioned Kruger.

"Kruger, was it?" the dragon rumbled. "It is good to meet you, Natsuki, daughter of Kruger. I know of your father, but I was not aware he had children, or rather, that it was possible for him to father them," it mumbled. Even the dragon's mumbling echoed off the walls of the large room. She wondered if it realized no matter how quiet a sound it made, she would hear it—for it was very large and she was very small. She wondered what it meant about not knowing Kruger could have children. How was it that the only human contact she could remember having was Kruger, but these girls Midori and Yukino could remember her—or this dragon could remember the man she called father? It was weighing more heavily on her by the second. "Where are my manners?" The dragon snapped out of its quiet consideration, "I am of Paiste, but I was given no name. I have been called Y Ddraig Goch," the dragon explained. Natsuki had heard the name Paiste before—legends called him the first dragon. She guessed it meant something important that a creature so old was talking to her.

"It is good to meet you, Y Ddraig Goch," she replied reflexively, and then explained, "I was raised by Kruger. I am not his blood, but he was still my father," she told the dragon honestly. She figured it was the least she could do—this thing was probably a million years old, and it was exchanging introductions instead of killing her. She found herself wishing she could have left the girls to their mining and gone on her way. The dragon nodded at her explanation.

"I see, but still something for him to have raised you at all…" it muttered, observing the huntsman's daughter intently. She tried not to flinch away from the scrutiny at first, and after a moment, made steady eye contact with the creature whose claws were the size of her entire body. "Yes, I can see him in you. You know, few humans could do much but feel terror in my presence. It takes a powerful will to keep that spell at bay. It is a form of protection for when we are very young, you see," it told her and she wondered why it was giving her these details. Did it plan to kill her either way? The spell made sense, though. She had heard of even the toughest warriors running in abject fear at the sight of even a young dragon. She had always wondered about that. The dragon continued to observe her silently. She watched him in turn.

"Are you going to kill me?" she finally asked it. It narrowed its eyes.

"Perhaps," it answered after a pause, "Why do you ask? Are you planning to fight me?" The huntswoman let out a surprised laugh.

"No way. I thought I was coming back to talk to a dragon half your size and a fraction of your age—if you plan to kill me, you'll succeed. I can't beat you, or even run from you. I asked because I was curious. I figured if you answered me, I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore," she answered with a shrug. The dragon was quiet for several moments, and then Natsuki fell down as the ground she stood on quaked with the dragon's laughter. "What the…" she stared up at the dais dumbfounded as the dragon laughed heartily. "I don't see what's so funny…" she grumbled as she got to her feet after it had finished laughing.

"Oh, child, of course you wouldn't," it answered, now with a much friendlier tone than before. Natsuki was still trying to figure out what she had done that had made the dragon's affect change so dramatically. "You knew better than to try and fight me, because you are intelligent. You have also been honest in every word you have spoken. There is only one other facet I'd like to explore—Natsuki, daughter of Kruger." It told her, and she stared at it with open confusion. She did notice that the way he said 'Kruger' was odd and seemed forced. She had often wondered if her father had changed his name when he had decided to live alone. She waited for the smiling dragon to speak again, offering it a gaze that changed in the space of moments from confusion to impatience and irritation. It hadn't even told her whether it planned to kill her or not. "You actively sought me out," it said, "for what reason?" Oh. This creature's presence was so distracting she'd almost forgotten about Chie and the others. She felt pretty stupid, and scowled accordingly.

"Chie and her friends," Natsuki looked up to meet the dragon's eyes again, and it stopped smiling.

"Whom?"

"The group of women you have working in the vein of diamonds. You shrank them?" she tried, and finally recognition showed on its face. That recognition turned to confusion. "I came to ask you to release them," she told it. It watched her again for several moments, and she decided that dragons—at least this one—took forever to say anything.

"Are they your friends?" it asked her. She shook her head. She didn't have any friends. "Why do you want me to release them?" it tried again, and her brow furrowed. Why? She looked at the dragon with wide eyes.

"Because they shouldn't suffer forever for one mistake," she answered matter-of-factly, "They screwed up. Maybe a punishment is a good thing, but they don't deserve to be slaves for the rest of their lives. It's not right." The dragon lay down on the dais, making it easier for her to see his face.

"You are intelligent, honest, and good," it told her, and she blinked in confusion. This whole interaction was very strange. "You are like Kruger in every way that matters, and before he died, he sent me a letter," he said, and he was speaking as quietly as he could now. Natsuki thought that he wasn't nearly as intimidating curled up and whispering like this, and maybe that was the point. She wasn't sure what to do, so she just waited and listened. Her body was tensed to run, but she supposed it was natural since his face was within ten feet of her and the thought of being eaten could not be removed from the front of her mind.

"Have you heard the story of Siegfried and Fafnir?" the dragon asked, and she nodded. Fafnir was a greedy man-turned-dragon and the hero Siegfried had killed him to protect the humans he regularly killed. "I see. Well, while the story may be strangely different in some ways, in others it is merely truth. Siegfried was a dragon who once loved humans a great deal. After he killed Fafnir, who was his uncle, he was punished by being sealed into a human form to live out the rest of his days. He lost the long life granted dragons and was forbidden from having any contact with them. Along the way, he lost even his love for humanity. The end of his life was spent alone in the Feywild, away from contact with other intelligent beings." Natsuki opened her mouth to tell him that the idea that Kruger was Siegfried and a dragon was ridiculous, but he continued on. "Siegfried was my son, and Fafnir my brother." He finished, and Natsuki just stood there with her mouth open. He waited patiently for her mind to restart, and when it did, she crossed her arms and glared up at him.

"I can't figure out why you would make up a lie like this—what good it does you," she told him honestly. "But dragons lie…my father told me that often," she added angrily. "If you're going to kill me, just do it," she said. The story was just too ridiculous for Natsuki to believe, but also too ridiculous to make sense as a lie. The dragon nodded.

"Yes, Siegfried was certainly jaded by the time you came into his life. Even so, I found it strange that he would take in a human child after all he had gone through in the past. I had not decided whether or not I would abide by my son's dying request or not until I could meet you for myself. I hadn't even decided whether or not I _wanted_ to meet you when you came walking right into my home on your own championing some humans you do not even know. Certainly, you aren't blood—Siegfried was in human form, but still a dragon. He could not father any human children outside of his gift, and was not allowed contact with dragons. He was a very different man when he died than the son I treasured above all for so many years, but I do not see Kruger in you…I see the hero of humanity. So, you are not blood, but—I see my son in you, and so you are Natsuki, daughter of Siegfried," he said with an air of finality that made the huntswoman's blood run cold. "Over there is a letter he asked me to give to you upon our meeting, youngling," the dragon told her, and she numbly moved up to the dais to retrieve it.

She sat wordlessly next to the dragon's massive tail without realizing she should be uncomfortable being so near him to read it. It was a letter in his writing, a script she knew very well, and made mention of information only she and her father might know to prove to her that it was him. He knew she would not believe the giant red dragon, and he also told her it was all true. Kruger asked her in his letter to trust the dragon if it acknowledged that she was his daughter. She must have been sitting there for over an hour trying to take in everything she had learned when she realized she was reclining against a dragon's tail and leaped up unceremoniously.

"I'm, uh…" she started, "Sorry," she mumbled lamely and the dragon chuckled.

"Do not fret, child. Remember that we are kin now," it told Natsuki, who was still having trouble accepting that. "I must confess, the letter I received was quite different from yours, and I might have captured that group of girls to interrogate the two fairies travelling with them about you," the dragon told her, and her gaze shot sharply to meet his. Fairies? Did he mean Yukino and Midori?

"They knew me…who are they?" she asked angrily, and then looked at the floor. "Who…who am I?" she said, almost to herself, but was surprised at the adamant answer she received.

"As I said before, you are Natsuki, daughter of Siegfried," the dragon told her seriously. She looked helplessly up at the creature. She was simply overwhelmed. "However, you were not always that. You were born someone else, and the blood running through your veins is full of magic. That may be why my son decided to protect you. It may be that the daughter of Siegfried is destined to be a hero for humanity as well. I have never met a creature that so strongly radiates magic, youngling. You have a very important thing to do—an important place to get to. It will be something only you can do. Unfortunately, your past is empty so it will be difficult to discover what that is. I will help you find your destiny—that was your father's last request," the creature—her grandfather?—told her.

She didn't really understand the magic part of things, but she guessed she had always known there was something different about her. Natsuki also often had the feeling that she was supposed to be doing something important, but she had no idea what that was. A destiny? Her strange feeling of discontent was because she had a destiny? It was strange to think about, but she had just told Duran in the cave that something was going to change…she had felt it coming, hadn't she? Was that magic or intuition? Did it matter? If it was like he said, and she was some kind of hero of humanity like Siegfried—her father—was, could she say no? She couldn't. She'd do everything she could to help people who couldn't help themselves, but she was used to being passive about it. Now, she'd have to go looking for her destiny. Because it seemed like whether she wanted it to or not, it was coming for her anyway.

"I...all right, where do you think I should start? I have...I have a mission I was in the middle of before coming here to help those girls. I need to get back to it soon," she paused, "um, what do I call you?" her face turned extremely red at the question, because it felt too personal. Maybe she should have just called him Y Ddraig Goch, but she didn't want to offend him by being formal if kin were supposed to name each other differently. He chuckled at the question and her red face, which just made it redder.

"Your father often called me Ddraig. It simply is another word for 'Dragon,' but perhaps it seems less impersonal a name when it is in an unfamiliar tongue," he answered with a small smile and Natsuki nodded. "I think it best that you continue on your way with those girls you have rescued, and find what you can learn from the fairies with them. The shrinking spell will wear off naturally within two days as soon as they are out of my caves. I had heard that there were two fairies looking for someone fitting your physical description and age, and set a trap for the group. I had thought I would interrogate them for information about you to determine whether or not I would leave my home to make contact or not—as it turns out, that was unnecessary. I will keep in contact with you via messengers, and you will continue as you have been while I search for information regarding your past, or perhaps your future." Ddraig said, and Natsuki grinned. "What?" the red dragon asked her.

"You reminded me of him, then. You just told me what to do without making it seem like you were ordering me around," she explained, and Ddraig smiled down at her. "All right, well, I should get going then. That mission I was talking about might leave me behind if I keep losing time like this," she said, finally starting to feel in control of things again for the first time today. She turned to leave, but Ddraig stopped her.

"A gift, first. Your father's sword reforged. It is named Gram," the dragon told her as he gestured toward a pedestal near the dais. The blade and hilt of the sword were obsidian black while still being as reflective as silver. The hilt was encrusted with emeralds, and there were strange symbols she did not recognize etched into the blade. It was probably the most beautiful sword she'd ever seen.

"I shouldn't—" she started, but Ddraig huffed in annoyance.

"It is rude for a human to accept a gift—it is rude for a dragon to refuse one," he told her, "You will take it," he finished, and Natsuki's face reddened again as she nodded. "It is not just a gift, but a birthright. Now, never forget that Gram is enchanted, and very powerful. You must practice wielding it before taking it into battle. The sword will fill you with wrath if you let it, but the force of your will—a force strong enough to counter dragonfear—can keep it at bay. Others that try to take your sword will be overcome by madness, so either keep it close or hidden," he finished.

"Thank you, Ddraig," Natsuki offered as she slid Gram into its nearby scabbard. She had felt something strange when her hand had closed on the hilt, but it hadn't lasted long so she saved it to worry about later. "It was…" she began, but the dragon shook his head.

"I will see you soon, youngling. Go on, now," he told her and she smiled at him before turning to go. She met Duran at the entrance and patted his head as they left.

"Maybe dragons have something against saying goodbye?" she grinned at the wolf as they headed back to the Chie and her group of merry women. Her life kept getting more complicated, but for the first time she thought she might be okay with that.

* * *

It had been some time since they entered the Feywild, and Mikoto had told them that she was having trouble picking up any worthwhile trails to follow. So they had been wandering aimlessly for days, unsure of their next move. They had hoped to find human trails to follow to settlements—they knew that there were a few human settlements in the Feywild, but they were not common knowledge so they would have to be tracked down. Mai and Nao had also told them that the Good Fairy had promised to do everything she could to meet them once they had arrived here to help them move forward, but Shizuru certainly had no faith in that promise, nor anything else the woman said.

Shizuru sat away from the group again as they ate, laughed, and talked together while she remained introspective as she had been since the incident with the soldiers. She slid Excalibur out of her bag and examined the hilt as she remembered the way she had felt while killing the men. She remembered the expression on their faces as they realized they were going to die, and she had watched the life leave their eyes. It had filled her with a sense of power she had never experienced before, and what had bothered her these days since was how much she had enjoyed it. She dreamt of those few moments every night and woke in a cold sweat. It was as if her conscious mind that knew the feeling was wrong fought against a darker, colder subconscious.

She knew that she must not draw the sword again because she enjoyed killing far more than any righteous human being should, and she was afraid if she did it even once more, she would not stop. The red-eyed girl had been searching for a sense of self since she had left Avalon…was this who the princess really was? A murderer? A monster, even? She had avoided close interaction with any of her companions lately because there was an emptiness she knew was in her eyes now despite the perfect mask her upbringing had taught her to wear.

"Lost in thought again, princess?" Reito leaned against a tree opposite the large stone where she sat. The attractive man offered her a small smile that said he understood how she was feeling. That made her uncomfortable—what kind of person was he?

"Indeed. May I help you with something?" she asked him flatly without making eye contact. She knew what he would see there.

"Yes, actually. I wanted to ask you about that sword," he began, and the red-eyed girl nodded. She saw no need to obscure any truths regarding Excalibur now that it was known she carried it, but supposed this could be an opportunity to discover more about this mysterious companion they had gained.

"Very well," she answered, "I will answer any questions you have regarding Excalibur honestly if you agree to answer honestly any question I ask of you in return," she offered. The man's mouth curled upward into a smirk.

"Interesting," Reito muttered in a deeper voice, "All right then, but I know quite a bit about Excalibur already. If you promise to also answer honestly when I ask about the other night when you drew the sword, I will agree to your terms," he finished with a shrug. "You must also promise not to speak of what I tell you without my permission," he added. Shizuru thought for a moment, and then sighed. She was too curious about the dark-haired man to refuse, and she could be careful about how she phrased any answers to queries about personal matters.

"I see no reason to refuse. It is an accord. My father forged Excalibur after the prophecy regarding Pendragon was recorded. It was a sort of life's work for him, and I felt it my responsibility to continue to protect it until the time when it shall be sent across the sea to be found by the High King for whom it was destined," she explained, and the dark-haired man made a sound of understanding.

"Then you are in fact Shizuru, Princess of Avalon," he told her and her eyes shot up to meet his. He did not seem at all surprised, and her eyes narrowed. "Before you begin questioning me regarding that, I will simply explain myself. I imagine this story will answer most of your questions. My name is Michael, and we have met before. You probably would not remember me, because you were a very small child when we were introduced. I was only ten myself," he told her, and her eyes widened. She had been promised to a prince named Michael from a neighboring kingdom at her birth. "You do remember, then," he smiled, "We were to be married upon your eighteenth birthday—but on your sixteenth, you fell under a curse. I had planned to attempt a rescue, but apparently Maleficent had other ideas. She destroyed my kingdom and placed a sort of curse on me as well," he said, looking uncomfortable.

"What manner of curse?" Shizuru prompted, and Reito knelt down to speak more quietly.

"Have you heard of the creature, Fenrir?" he asked, and Shizuru raised a brow.

"I have read myths regarding him, yes," she answered. Fenrir was supposedly a kind of lesser god—an immortal who had the power and destiny to destroy the world. He was depicted as a giant wolf in images.

"As you know, many myths are based on truth, and in this case, Fenrir exists. He was one of few beings still active on the Isles that could stop Maleficent, and I was the prince who could have saved the Sleeping Beauty from her curse. So, to deal with two problems at once, she sealed Fenrir within my body and entwined his soul with mine to diminish most of his power and take away any purity of heart I might once have possessed," he finished, and Shizuru simply stared at him for the space of several moments. The princess had trouble believing him, but didn't see why he would lie, and had seen several unbelievable things happen in the space of a few weeks herself.

"That is why you sometimes seem two separate men," she verbalized, and he nodded. His voice changed.

"I wouldn't necessarily refer to myself as a 'man,' per se," the voice growled, "But if it helps you sleep at night," he trailed off with a smirk. Shizuru thought of another question.

"I have been asleep for five hundred years," she started, and Fenrir shrugged.

"You can't imprison a god inside the body of a man and expect him to be totally mortal," he explained, "We're pretty hard to kill and we don't age, but comparatively, I'm completely powerless. Even Maleficent couldn't have killed me, but that bitch was clever enough to find a way to stop me without doing that," he explained, and Shizuru noticed his eyes really did change when he was Fenrir. They glowed an amber color in the dim light rather than the honey brown of Michael's eyes. The red-eyed princess was silent for several long moments, simply looking at the combination of man and wolf that was Reito, and then dropped her eyes.

"I am sorry," she said quietly, and when he did not respond, she glanced up again to find the wolf astonished.

"Why?"

"I do not apologize to Fenrir, the being with the destiny to destroy the world, but to Michael. If not for me, he would not have been a threat to the Queen. The curse, at least that which affects the Prince, is my fault. I am sorry for this," she explained. Reito's eyes darkened and he smiled ruefully.

"You don't choose your own destiny, princess. It isn't your fault that this happened to me, but thank you for your kindness. In another life, we might have grown to love each other. It certainly doesn't seem like it would have been difficult for me," he complimented, and Shizuru received it as such with a small smile. His eyes brightened again and his smile turned predatory. Now that she knew the dichotomy of his character, it was very easy to tell which side of the man was interacting with her.

"Now it's my turn. Have you told me everything about the power of that sword?" he asked her, and she raised a brow.

"I have told you everything that might be relevant," she answered carefully, and his eyes narrowed.

"You have promised to answer me honestly," he started, and she opened her mouth to reply but he raised a hand to silence her. "I understand that you don't want to share everything with me—but answer this: is it Excalibur that hungered for the blood of those men, or was it you?" he asked haltingly, and the princess could not stop her body from tensing, or her eyes from jumping to his. It was all the answer he needed, and the smile on his face made her stomach turn. The wolf stood, looking down at her with a sort of affection that filled her with shame and disgust, and offered her a parting wound. "When you drew that sword in the clearing, princess, for a few moments you were the most beautiful creature I have ever seen," he told her and moved back toward the group at the fire. Shizuru felt a chill sinking deep into the core of her being, and as she wrapped her arms around herself, she wondered if she would ever feel warm again.

"Wow," Nao Grimm's voice startled the princess from behind her in the trees. She came to sit next to her. They sat in silence for a stretch of time, and Shizuru felt numb.

"What did you hear?" she finally asked the redhead, who took a deep breath.

"Pretty much all of it," she answered vaguely, and they sank into silence again. "At least Reito's total creepiness makes sense now, although I wonder when you had time to go and get Excalibur," she wondered aloud.

"When I went into my room, I simply used the back passageway to go down to the forge and retrieve it," Shizuru answered without thinking. Even though the redhead was short and petite compared to the tall, graceful princess, she found herself feeling very small sitting next to her. Nao had seen her reaction to Reito's words, and knew a truth about the red-eyed girl that she had barely admitted to herself.

Feeling she was being scrutinized, the red-eyed girl stood, unable to bear it any longer. "Wait a second," Nao's voice was placating, and Shizuru glanced down at her. The redhead refused to make eye contact. "It's all right, you know. I understand. I…sometimes, I feel like…" she tried, but did not seem to be able to express herself. "Look, I get it. There's a dark place inside some of us—what makes us good or evil is how hard we fight against it," she finally said. The princess felt tears stinging her eyes, and turned away toward the darkness. "Just fight it, and it'll be okay," the younger Grimm said with some frustration, and then stormed off. Shizuru watched her go with wide eyes, and continued staring after her for a long time.


	7. Chapter 7

Heeey. I know it's been a super long while, school, work, and no play make for a lame imagination. But I finally got something together, and surprise! It's time for some ShizNat. Woo-hoo. I don't know how often I'll be able to update, but I love writing this story (it's a lot of fun!) so I promise I won't be quitting on it, though it might sometimes be slow going. As ever, please let me know what you think. It's super-exciting that people besides me actually read this stuff. :/

Enjoy! :)

* * *

"She made it back!" Aoi exclaimed as Natsuki and Duran emerged into the small space once again to alert the other women, who came to surround her.

"And she brought back a sword," Chie pointed out the new weapon on her side.

"Did you slay the dragon?" Akira asked, and Natsuki scowled.

"I don't _slay_," she said again, appalled as ever that humans thought so little of the lives of other beings. "And it was a gift," she shrugged.

"A…gift?" Akane asked with a frown.

"What about us?" Midori broke in, "We're still dwarves! Did you think to ask about that during _teatime_ with your new friend?" she crossed her arms and stomped like a spoiled child, and Natsuki was not sure if she was amused or irritated by this.

"Did you really make friends with that dragon? He didn't seem all that friendly before…" Aoi asked with a frown.

"Ask and ye shall receive—I have been praying since our capture that we would be allowed to leave with no harm to either party, and those prayers have been answered," Yukariko said softly from the back, and when Akira started to ask another question, Natsuki dropped her bag and took a step back from the group.

"Shut UP," she said forcefully, and they all turned shocked faces to her. After a moment of silence, Natsuki felt her face burn. "I mean, that is, I…One question at a time, I don't…look, yes, I talked to him, and he gave me this sword, and I did ask him about you all. He says that after you leave the cave, the spell will wear off after two days and you'll all be fine," she answered them although she kept her eyes firmly on the ground. They obviously had more questions, but to her great relief, they did not ask them.

She was completely unused to the attention of any human besides Kruger and so many focusing on her at once was making her very anxious. She wanted to run, to leave them here. She could do that now, right? They were fine now, she helped them…but she still needed to talk to the two…fairies? She glanced at Midori and Yukino again, thinking they didn't look like tiny, winged, magical creatures at all. They looked like magically shrunken humans, just like the other five women. There were a few more moments of silence before Chie let out a loud whoop, and took off for the mouth of the cave. This started up more conversation as everyone followed her outside (the seven women were short enough to walk through, but Natsuki had to remove her gear and crawl through the tight space again), but it was much less stressful for the huntswoman since no one was talking to her specifically. When she finished putting her gear back on, Chie approached her and extended a hand.

"Hey, thanks for saving us, hero," she offered a friendly smile, and Natsuki frowned, ignoring her hand.

"Next time, maybe you should use your head before you get on a dragon's bad side," she answered with a roll of her eyes, embarrassed by the girl's friendly behavior. It was much easier to relate to them when they were just worried about being tiny forever. She could ask pointed questions, find a mission, and complete it. Now Chie wanted a handshake and what, friendship? Natsuki didn't know what friendship meant, but she didn't need anyone for anything. Chie's smile simply got bigger, which caused Natsuki's expression to do the opposite as she narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"You're a good kid, Natsuki," she answered and the huntswoman turned sharply away so they couldn't see the embarrassment on her face again. "We all owe you one. If you're ever near Nottingham, pay us a visit at Sherwood Forest. And if you ever need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask," she said with a smile, and the five women each thanked her in turn and offered goodbyes. Aoi wrapped her in a hug that lifted her from the ground and forced the air out of her lungs. Akira offered her a simple goodbye, but did not thank her or try to shake her hand, and Natsuki decided that she was more comfortable around the boy than any of the others. Midori and Yukino remained with the huntswoman, and the moment they were out of earshot, she turned to them with a glare.

"Start talking," she said, and Midori narrowed her eyes and looked about to start yelling again when a thoughtful Yukino put a hand on the redhead's shoulder.

"We are fairies, and have been searching for you for a very long time," Yukino began, "Have you been in the Feywild this whole time?" she asked, "I am wondering why it took us so long to find you." Natsuki scowled at the diverting question, but answered anyway.

"You wouldn't have found me unless I wanted you to," she allowed a small bit of pride to rear its head, "but yeah, I've been here the whole time," she finished, then made a small amendment. "Well, except that I just got back from a short trip to see the queen," she said—half to herself, but narrowed her eyes again at the shock written blatantly across the two fairies faces.

"You saw the Queen? What the hell were you thinking? Are you stu—"

"Midori, please. Haruka told us that she doesn't know who she is, remember?" Midori looked sheepish, "Did the Queen recognize you?" she turned her attention back to Natsuki, who was getting frustrated again.

"Look, I don't know who you people are, and I'm done answering your questions until you explain all of this to me. Who do you think I am? Why would the Queen recognize me? Why do I remember…" she stopped herself there when she suddenly felt cold again. "_We'll see how fair you are when you're starving to death,"_ the Queen's voice pulled her back into pitch darkness for a moment. Yukino seemed to notice a change in her expression, because she looked concerned, and then smiled sheepishly.

"I'm sorry, Natsuki. It's not my intention to run around your answers. I'm going to tell you a story now, and after I'm finished, you can ask me any questions you like. All right?"

Natsuki nodded. _Finally_.

"Once upon a time, there was a great and just king who fell in love with a beautiful, kind woman who became his queen. They were very happy together, and all the people of their kingdoms and many other kingdoms loved them, but then they found themselves unable to have any children. This caused them great pain until one of their housemaids died in childbirth of twin boys who had no father. They adopted these boys and loved them very much, but still the queen and king were pained that they could not give their love to a child of their own blood. One day, after the boys were grown and she found herself again lamenting that she was barren, the queen found herself so distraught that she fled into the Feywild to be alone in her misery. She ran for many hours, suffering from exhaustion which became delirium. She tripped, cutting herself on a thorn bush. As she gazed on the blood she wished aloud that she could have a beautiful daughter with lips red as blood, hair black as ebony, and skin white as snow. The magic of the Feywild felt her suffering, and granted her wish. When the king's men found her and she returned to the castle, she found soon that she was with child, and the girl was exactly as she had wished, with dark hair, red lips, and skin white as snow. The king and queen loved their little girl very much, and they were very happy.

However, one day the queen was out in the market and was given a beautiful red apple by an old woman and upon eating it, became very ill and died. The king was heartbroken, and was pressured to remarry, settling on a beautiful young woman who was very kind to he and his daughter. The king did not know that the young woman was an evil fairy who had disguised herself as an old woman in the market the day the queen died, and after he married her, he too fell ill and died. The evil queen had a magical mirror that would only obey her while she was the "fairest of them all," you see, and the mirror had told her that the "fairest of them all" was Snow White, who was only eight years old when the evil fairy came to become the Queen of the kingdom.

The day the King died, the Queen locked Snow White away in a dungeon for weeks before the King's adopted sons could sneak into the castle to rescue her. They took Snow White into the forest at the edge of the Feywild while they tried to decide what to do and went hunting for their dinner. The Queen discovered that Snow White had disappeared and sent her servant, the terrible descendant of the Destroyer, to kill Snow White and her brothers. The creature killed the twins, but when it approached Snow White, she touched it and her purity changed the creature; for all creatures on the Shimmering Isles except humans come from magic, and Snow White was a human conceived by magic. He protected the young princess and she escaped into the Feywild, the Queen none the wiser to her survival."

Natsuki stared at Yukino blankly for several minutes after she finished her story, and understood that the descendant of the Destroyer (whoever that is) was Duran, and that this story was meant to be_ her_ story. Kruger was really Siegfried, and now this? Natsuki, a princess? She said nothing, and moved to sit on the ground, leaning her back against a tree. Yukino and Midori seemed to understand that she was overwhelmed, and remained at a distance while Duran lay next to her and put his head in her lap with a whine. She stroked his fur absently.

"Tomorrow. We'll sleep here tonight," Natsuki told them simply.

"All right," Yukino answered. "If you have any questions, I will answer them," she finished, sending Midori off to find them some firewood. The emerald-eyed huntswoman stared blankly into the forest as she went over the story in her head, trying to remember the faces of her long-dead parents, or her brothers…her brothers that Duran had killed? That was impossible, Duran would never do anything to hurt her. He was Natsuki's only friend. Of course, the story had said that he had been changed by magic. So he wasn't Duran when he killed her brothers. She tried to remember anything from the story, but it all just sounded like a story. Like something that happened to someone else.

"_We'll see how fair you are when you're starving to death,"_ she heard again in her mind, and knew that she was Snow White. The Queen had kept her in the dungeon, having her beaten and starved at her leisure after killing her Mommy and Daddy. Natsuki didn't know where that thought had come from, and suddenly there was a sharp pain in her head, and she leaned forward and vomited on the ground. Duran barely escaped unscathed as she saw her mother's face in her mind, so much like her own, remembered her mother playing with her in their gardens, heard her mother sing to her, declare her the most wonderful child in the world, tell her every day how much she loved her. Her father laughing when she refused to learn needlework or dress like a lady and giving her a wooden sword small enough for her to lift so that she could play fighting games with her brothers. Her brothers' huge grins as they carried her on their shoulders through the gardens so she could pretend she was riding a horse since her father said she was too small to ride her own. Her happiness, her _family_. She remembered them all at once, and as her stomach emptied itself on the ground, she felt an emptiness settle in her heart as she realized she had been in the presence of the woman who had taken her entire family away from her just a few days ago. Not a woman, a _monster_. The only monster Nastuki had ever met in her life—now she understood what the knights had seen when they looked at Tom the troll, and she knew if it was the last thing she did, she was going to _kill_ Queen Alyssa with her own hands.

She didn't notice Yukino approaching her as she screamed and cried for everything she hadn't realized she had lost, and when the fairy put a hand on her shoulder as if to comfort her, she reacted with her fists.

* * *

Nao had been strangely considerate of Shizuru for the last couple of days, and Mai was starting to wonder what had happened between them the other night. She remembered that Shizuru had been off by herself, but that wasn't out of the ordinary since the girl had been keeping to herself since the incident with the soldiers. Then Reito had disappeared, presumably to speak with her, and Nao had followed after him in secret. Mai had hoped she might learn something about the extremely attractive, but mysterious companion that had recently joined them, but Nao hadn't said anything to her when she returned and spent the rest of the night brooding.

She hadn't had the opportunity to be alone with her sister to ask about it, and still couldn't get up the nerve to speak seriously with the princess about anything since the clearing. Shizuru had approached her after killing the men to help her to get up, and she had shrunk back from the blood-covered woman in fear. The redhead had never seen anything like that in her life. The princess had drawn the sword and then moved so quickly Mai's eyes couldn't even follow her, and the look on her face when she was killing them was…the lavender-eyed girl had no idea how to describe the look, but it had made her hair stand on end and she felt the strong urge to run. Even now, the elder Grimm avoided making eye contact with the red-eyed princess because she could see something in her eyes now that brought back the feeling from the clearing. It was frustrating to her that she couldn't overcome this discomfort in the girl's presence, because she wanted to help Shizuru to get past whatever had her avoiding her travelling companions, as she could tell the normally carefully pleasant (if only on the surface) girl was drawing into herself and suffering alone, but Shizuru was unwilling to talk, and Mai couldn't get past her own hang-ups. The princess had worn that polite smile since a few days into their journey, and it almost never left her face, but now she almost never smiled, and she was even less talkative than usual.

"You seem to be thinking very hard about something, Miss Grimm. Is there anything I can do?" Reito seemed to materialize beside her as they walked, and she felt herself blushing. Even his voice was attractive. It seemed to alternate between a smooth, formal tone that reminded her a bit of Shizuru's—not musical like hers, but the princess spoke like she'd stepped out of one of Nao's books of legends or one of her books of history (well, technically she did do that) and sometimes he said things that reminded her of those books too; and a rougher tone that was more familiar to her growing up in a small village. It seemed to her that he must be a terrific actor, and maybe while he was with them, he didn't know what he should be pretending to be. She had a feeling there was more to it than that (which was why she had to find some time to speak with her sister), but it was all she could come up with right now. It occurred to her that she might have a crush on their handsome companion, as she spent a lot of her time now thinking about him.

"Um, well, not really…" she laughed nervously at being caught, "but thank you." She smiled at him, and he offered a charming grin in response.

"I have a good feeling about today," he said, and at her questioning glance, "I think we'll find what we're looking for. I have a good sense about these things." Mai laughed lightly.

"Is that so? I was starting to wonder if your sister was just running us in circles so we'd never get anywhere," she started and the man laughed.

"And she could eat your cooking forever? I imagine that it's crossed her mind," he gave her a friendly tap on the shoulder that made her face warm again, "but she really is looking for a sign of our quarry. We don't know enough about who we are looking for that she can track effectively—still, I feel sure that we will not have to search for much longer." Mai frowned, and he gave a mysterious smile. She wasn't sure how to respond to him sometimes, and eventually she just shrugged.

"We'll see, I guess," she settled for, and caught Nao's fist pump in front of them and a whoop as she had apparently shocked Shizuru into laughter, which she had been trying to do for the last three hours. Mai smiled fondly at her sister, who was nothing if not determined. It really was weird though, that Nao suddenly seemed so friendly to the princess—she had been very cold to her until the clearing. The elder Grimm wondered if her sister saw something of a mirror in the red-eyed girl—Nao had a cruel streak created by trouble in their childhood that she tried very hard to hide from Mai.

"I suppose it's a good thing that your sister is doing something to cheer up our princess," Reito said conversationally, "although I wonder what has changed between them as of late." Mai met his eyes in surprise—he hadn't been with them that long, and knew what they had been like before? Or was he reading Mai's own concern?

"Yeah…yeah, me too," she answered awkwardly. Reito looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry, I've made you uncomfortable. It was not my intention. I'm simply very observant, especially since I did not know any of you until recently. I have been trying to ascertain what kind of character I find myself travelling alongside," he explained, and her tension eased a bit. Of course, that made sense. Most things Mikoto's elder brother said did make sense, which was a fact that should probably make her suspicious, given that they were on a 'secret mission'. Speaking of Mikoto…

"…Where did your sister go?" the redhead asked abruptly, looking around in confusion. She hadn't seen her in several minutes.

"She found a stream ahead and decided to go for a swim," Reito answered immediately, and then looked away when the elder Grimm met his eyes in wonder at how he could know that if he was here with her and therefore could not see or hear the girl any more than Mai could. A couple of minutes later, however, she could hear splashing, and they came upon a clearing where Mikoto was thrashing about in the stream with a rather large fish she seemed to have caught with her bare hands. Mai smiled indulgently as Mikoto waved it at her excitedly.

"I found our dinner!" she shouted at them, "It's going to be delicious!"

"I guess we found our camp for the night," Nao said wryly and with a strangely obvious look of concern directed at Shizuru's back as the princess wandered immediately as they arrived at the stream into the woods to find a secluded place to bathe. Mai shrugged, and at another pang of regret at her inability to help the princess with her problems and a bit of pride that her sister was taking over for her in that respect, she realized that her travelling companions were starting to feel less like acquaintances, and more like family.

"I'm with Mikoto," Reito tossed another charming smile in her direction, "I can't wait for another of your meals."

* * *

Natsuki accidentally glanced at Yukino again and began cursing herself. The girl had a black eye—she was all magically tiny and defenseless, and Natsuki had attacked her. She was out of her mind, and Midori had given her a matching wound in defense of her friend. She was deceptively strong for her size. It had taken both fairies and Duran to hold her down long enough for her to regain her senses, and after a whispered apology she had spent the night in silence, even Duran knowing to keep himself at a distance, although he did not let her out of his sight. She had managed to get a hold of herself through the night, though she did not sleep. She accepted all of these insane things that kept happening because there was really nothing else she could do, and she vowed to avenge her family. She had told Midori and Yukino about her meeting with the Queen this morning and that she was looking for this "Shizuru," and while they had seemed to recognize the name, they had told her that it was a conversation for another time, and that they really should hurry to catch the trail because it was important that they find her. The huntswoman had not been inclined to hear any more insane stories, so she had been content with this. She had not even asked why the fairies had said they were looking for her for a long time. It was enough that they wanted to stop the Queen. From doing what, she didn't know. She'd ask later when she had the stomach for the answers. The sun had set when they neared their quarry.

"You two wait here, while I find out what we're up against," Natsuki told them, "I don't want them to know I'm there."

"Wait," Yukino stopped her from moving toward the stream, "Don't hurt anyone. These people are trying to stop the Queen," she told her, and Natsuki groaned.

"More stories? Not now. So…they're on our side?" she wanted an easy answer, but Midori decided to add some more confusion to her life.

"Well, they're actually probably going in circles because they're looking for you," she grinned, and the emerald-eyed girl scowled. Why would they be…? She was not asking that damned question out loud. She sheathed her sword and spun angrily to continue toward the stream.

"I still want to see what we're walking into before we actually walk into it," she spat, "Don't follow me. You people don't walk, you stumble. They'll hear you before you're close enough to see them," and the fairies seemed mostly satisfied, remaining behind. Natsuki approached the stream quietly, Duran in her shadow, thinking to follow the stream to their camp—she could see the dim light of their fire in the distance. She heard a strange sound in the stream before she got near enough to see the fire and travelling group, and readied her bow before moving to investigate.

She couldn't see anything through the brush at the edge of the stream because there was a large stone in the stream blocking her view, but she recognized the sounds because she had spent most of last night and this morning making them herself. They were the quiet, shaking sobs of someone in terrible pain—someone who had lost something as profound as she had lost. It made her chest feel tight, and she felt an irresistible urge to fix it—to make that pain go away somehow. She dropped her bow and took several steps forward out of the brush without meaning to so that she could see around the rock. What the hell was she doing?

She found the sobbing girl only four or five feet away, standing in the stream with her hands limp at her sides and her head dropped. Her chestnut-colored hair went halfway down her back and Natsuki watched the water droplets slide into the water, wondering how many of the ripples in the water were from the girl's tears. It was at this point that she realized the girl was naked, bathing, and that the huntswoman was staring at a naked crying woman like a pervert that she attempted to backpedal into the brush only to trip on her own feet and cry out as she hit the ground, more mortified than she had ever been in her entire life as she began cursing aloud. The girl's head shot up and Natsuki found herself stunned silent as she fell into a pair of ethereal red eyes on the face of an angel.

* * *

Shizuru had not cried since she was five years old. She was being crushed under the weight of this prophecy, the weight of the intense pain as she forced her body to keep up with these women who obviously had some experience with physical exertion while her body had been lying still for half a millennium, the weight of her castle filled with cursed people who she had been sworn to protect and look after, the weight of her fear that she held no identity, and now the weight of a darkness inside her that terrified not only herself, but Mai as well and rightly so. She had been preoccupied with the fate of her mother and father since Nao had made the comment in passing about their deaths as well when she had first awoken, but was so very afraid to hear the answers she sought. She had spent much of this day wondering if she had that answer, if this weight would lessen or become unbearable once she knew.

Shizuru's father was a great man, and he had loved her very much. He did not often tell her so, but he was of a kind disposition, and when he spoke to her his voice was gentler than when he spoke to others, so she knew that he cared. He also was a very busy man, being the King of Avalon, then the largest kingdom on the Shimmering Isles, so she did not see him often. However, once a week, for three hours (every week until she was eighteen and suffered the curse, in fact) she would sneak down to the forge to meet him at night and he taught her to use a sword. He was a warrior, and she often considered that he did not know anything else to share with her, but her mother would never have allowed Shizuru to do something so unbecoming. It was their secret, and the young girl cherished the time he took from his duties to spend with her—she knew he should have been resting, and she had asked him once if he would not like to get more rest. He ignored her question and came at her for another bout of sparring, and these were times when she _felt_ that he loved her, strange as it might seem. Once when a playmate of hers had died and he heard of it upon his return to the castle, he had come to her and held her in his arms and told her that everything would be okay.

Shizuru's mother had been a perfect Queen. She was everything a queen should be; beautiful, poised, graceful, well-spoken, and polite. Shizuru remembered the women in the castle talking about how perfect her mother was from a very young age, and she had agreed. She wanted to be just like her mother, and her mother had not just encouraged that wish, she had demanded it. Her father was rarely present in the castle during the day, so it was the Queen who raised her. When Shizuru spilled her food at the dinner table, she was not allowed to eat. Princesses did not make messes. When she misspoke in court, she was not allowed to return or play with her friends for days. When she failed to present as the perfect crown Princess in every way, she was punished equally.

She could not laugh too loudly or smile improperly. She must laugh politely at a joke even if it was not funny. She was never to display anger, but was permitted to display disappointment (but only to those of a lower station). When the princess was five years old, her favorite playmate had gotten a fever that resulted in her death, and her mother had found her crying in front of the servants. She had been locked in her room for a week with no visitors because princesses did not cry in public. She had cried uselessly for days; her friend, for her father (who was away from home at the time), and even for her mother, to no avail. Crusts of bread were slipped inside her door, but none of her pleas were answered until she remained silent for the final two days, at which point her mother had allowed her to resume her normal duties. Eventually, she was the perfect princess and her mother no longer needed to punish her because she did not make mistakes. Her mother was never unkind, but neither had she received any kindness.

She did not cry again, for any reason. In public nor in private, she had not cried in thirteen years. Five hundred and thirteen years, if one wanted to be technical.

Earlier, Nao had spent a great deal of effort attempting to get her to laugh, and after a particularly lewd joke that surprised her so much that she laughed in sheer shock, some of this weight seemed to lift for a few moments, and she had let out a weary sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Nao," she had said without looking at the short redhead, who also did not look at her.

"You're not a bad person," she said very quietly, and the princess found herself smiling again. It was odd that she was becoming strangely attached to the crude girl she had felt an immediate aversion to at their first meeting. "Annoying and stuck-up, sure, but...not bad."

"Perhaps not," she answered noncommittally. Her slight relief was short lived as she finally made a decision. "I would like you to tell me what happened to the King and Queen of Avalon now, please." Nao looked at her sharply, obviously shocked at the suddenness of the question.

"Look, I'm not sure if…" she started uncomfortably, but Shizuru raised her hand to silence the redhead, hoping the irritation at the gesture would remove her hesitation. She was not wrong, as the younger Grimm sister scowled at her. "Fine, have it your way. I guess there's not any way to be delicate about it no matter how I say it, so we'll do it the freaking hard way. After they tried for years to break your curse, they found the prophecy that said the "charming prince" could wake you with a "power above all others," and they were ecstatic. Then they got word that the prince was dead, and thought you would sleep forever. Your mother went mad and took her own life, and your father lived the rest of his in seclusion, speaking to no one," she finished, still not meeting the princess' eyes, and when Mai and Reito began to approach them, Nao muttered, "Go take a bath, you smell terrible," and moved to intercept them before they could come near enough to see the red-eyed girl's expression. She numbly walked into the forest and removed her clothes as the sun set on the horizon, sinking into the water and cleaning herself. She stood to leave the stream when she lost control and simply stood there numbly, trying to expel all of the pressure that was tearing her apart from within. She tried to make sure her sobbing was not loud enough to alert anyone else in the group, for she could not bear for anyone to see her. Still, she could not seem to stop, to pull her walls back up again, to replace the confused and broken creature she was with a haughty, perfect princess. She heard a sound to her left, but could not react until she heard a girl's voice.

"OW," it cried, "Damnit, Sonofa—" and her head finally jerked up to meet the emerald eyes of a woman covered almost completely by a cloak. For long moments they simply observed each other, the princess noting that these eyes were the most brilliant and beautiful eyes she had ever seen, but then her situation brought her back to reality. Even her moment of weakness could not go undisturbed, and she could not respond as she should. Shizuru crouched into the water, covering her chest with her arms, and said weakly,

"No," she told herself, commanded herself, but she did not listen and her sobbing resumed as if it had not been interrupted, disobeyed her mother, refused her station, and simply continued with its self-pity.

"No," the emerald-eyed woman repeated, walking into the water fully clothed and removing her cloak to wrap it around the shaking princess. She simply looked at Shizuru with her hands on her shoulders as she had placed the cloak for the space of a few moments before she repeated, "No," and wrapped the chestnut-haired girl into a careful embrace, as if she might break at any moment.

"We are already broken," Shizuru had meant to tell the stranger to leave her be, but she had ignored her own commands yet again, speaking her heart between deep, shuddering sobs, "She must have loved us…if she went mad, if she…if she…it means she loved me, does it not?" the red-eyed girl tried to stop herself, reminded herself that this was a stranger, that she was acting as if she were mad, to no avail. The arms around her simply tightened, a soft voice replying,

"You're not broken, you just hurt. Of course she loved you, I'm sure she loved you," the voice muttered mindlessly. Of course this girl had no idea what she was talking about, and part of Shizuru was furious that she dared try to comfort, to alleviate pain she could not possibly understand. The other half reveled in the support of someone else, the ability to lean on another as she sagged in the girl's arms. The emerald-eyed stranger lifted her and carried her to shore, sitting down with her at the base of a large tree. "Just tell me about it, all right? If you just get it out, it won't be so heavy." She looked into sincere eyes and heard words that might have come from somewhere in her own mind, decided that it was possible that she had gone mad and this girl was a piece of a fractured mind, told herself to remain silent, and started to tell the stranger.

Everything.


	8. Chapter 8

Alyssa sighed heavily, dropping yet another volume of prophecy to the table and opening it. She knew there had to be something here, as she had felt such a sense of familiarity about hearing about the Princess of Avalon's awakening. Something about the fact that her curse was still in place, even though the girl was awake. It ate at her night and day, and she found it difficult to sleep at night. She found what she was looking for in a very old passage of prophecy from the crystal caves:

_The fairest of them all becomes Maleficent, and she will control the whole of the Land. When she is most powerful, another will gain the power to usurp her. She will be white as snow, and the Land itself shall embrace her purity of heart and soul. The Fairest Queen's darkness will come for pure Snow White from each corner of the Land, and alone her removed heart will serve to strengthen a maleficent hold on the people. The only victory lies in the protection of the princess by Sleeping Beauty, who awakes within a curse and a palace become tomb._

This was the passage that had led her to kill Snow White. She had read the following two passages before her eyes snapped back up and read the final line over and over again. When Snow White had been killed, she had simply forgotten it, having dealt with Shizuru hundreds of years prior in relation to a separate prophecy. In fact, at the time she had read this and directed her attention to Snow White, she had not even connected "Sleeping Beauty" with Shizuru of Avalon. Now, it took on a new meaning. Her eyes narrowed in anger. She had not found the body of Snow White with those of her brothers, nor had she found the Destroyer's kin afterward. She had seen blood on the princes' weapons and assumed it had crawled off into the forest to die after devouring Snow White as she had commanded (she had taken the part referring to a 'removed heart' as metaphor for removing the girl's purity from the world, but now she wondered otherwise). She had not sensed the strange feeling of being in the presence of Magic that she associated with Snow White either, and that had furthered her conclusion that the child was dead—but this occurred in the Feywild, and she knew her senses were not reliable there. Was it possible…? She stood abruptly and crossed to the mirror in the library.

"Mirror, Mirror, on the wall; who is Fairest of them All?" The boy appeared with a knowing smirk on his face.

"The Queen Alyssa, of course," he answered and waited for her query. His eyes were serious, and they gave him away.

"Does Snow White live?"

"That's a very interesting question. If she did, you might not be able to ask me questions anymore, I think," he said, and she sensed that he was avoiding the question.

"Did the girl I sent the Destroyer's kin to devour escape into the Feywild?" she rephrased angrily, and the boy smiled.

"She did indeed, and made a pet out of the beast," he answered, "But whether or not she is still Snow White seems up in the air at the moment," he decided to add (perhaps he felt a little sorry for the Queen at the moment), but the Queen did not hear him. She let out a roar of fury and spun to knock all of the tomes from the table behind her to the ground. The boy watched with great amusement as she tore her library apart in a mindless rage. When a group of guards rushed into the room concerned for their ruler, she spun and became very still. She sent for the Captain of the Guard, furious that Miyu was still away, having been delayed in her conquest of the final kingdom. Queen Mashiro of Themiscyra's armies of Amazon warriors were a force to be reckoned with, but she knew in time Miyu would overcome them. However, some damned group of brigands (led and grown into a group of a sort of respectable size by an archer called Robin Hood) had halted her army's advance at Nottingham by joining forces with the Queen and flanking them.

"You will find Snow White and Shizuru of Avalon in the Feywild. You will bring me the heart of Snow White and kill everyone you find giving her aid. Take as many men as are required," she told the captain when he arrived. "Do not return without that heart, or I will have yours," she told him in parting, and retired to her chambers without another word. She had many things to do—beginning with contacting some very, very old 'friends'.

* * *

"_I thought I smelled a rat,"_ Fenrir said to the wolf without actually speaking aloud, who returned his sentiment with a low growl. It was definitely a threat. "_Don't you worry, now-what does she call you?"_ he searched the wolf's mind, "_Duran, is it? What a strange name_." The huge, black wolf did not react, and Fenrir put his hands up in supplication. "_Now, now. I'm not going to hurt your charge. You don't have to be so defensive. I was wondering where you had gotten off to when I heard that story about my kin being changed by the magic of Snow White. Is that her I sense? She feels…like she's part of the Feywild. It is strange, and I certainly haven't sensed anything like it before. I can see in your memories that you're very close, and out of respect for family, I will (within reason) respect and assist you in keeping your family of choice from harm. At the very least, I will swear that no harm will come to her by my hands._"

Reito made sure not to project that he added the very specific 'by my hands' for a reason, and in response to that thought, he felt Michael's suspicion and anger flare, but did not speak to him, and the Prince knew better than to interrupt him by now (he would make life very difficult for the man if he did not share his body equally, and vice-versa).

The wolf did seem to relax a bit as he had hoped. "_I have missed you, you know. Having only Michael's sister for only the last three hundred years has been a bit lonely. I could not stop the queen from taking you and your brothers and sisters from me after I was locked within this form. You are very different now, Duran. Not the same creature I created from myself, but in some ways you will always be a part of me, and that I have missed. I am glad to see you are safe and seem content with your current existence,"_ he finished, and the wolf finally consented to letting the Destroyer touch him. He stroked the thick fur, thinking that this wolf had been just as effectively neutered as he had when the Queen trapped him within Michael's body. It made him angry, but, as ever, his anger was impotent because all of his great power was out of reach. He was a god, but a chained one.

He listened absently to the steady breathing of Sleeping Beauty, who was asleep in the arms of Duran's charge, Snow White. The girl seemed unhappy about this development, but stayed where she was regardless. A wave of warmth travelled through him as he considered Shizuru, followed by guilt and sadness, and the god rolled his eyes at Michael's response. _Ever the gallant prince, aren't you? Five hundred years later, and you still can't help but think of her as "your" princess, can you?_ Prince Charming did not dignify him with a response, and he turned to go back to the camp. The two girls would join them when Shizuru had pulled herself back together, and he figured that Nao Grimm might be getting a little sore from crouching in the bushes spying on him anyway. He might be the Destroyer, but he could still be tangentially chivalrous. He handed the reins back to Michael.

* * *

Shizuru had been asleep on her shoulder for probably a half hour now, and the discomfort around other people that Natsuki normally felt was still suspiciously absent. The gorgeous red-eyed girl had told her a lot of things, only some of which made any sense. She gathered that Shizuru was a princess, and that her mother was a terrible human being that Natsuki disliked without having ever met for putting the girl through the things that haunted her now. Her father had no time for her either, and while Shizuru made excuses for this by saying that he was an important, busy man, she distinctly remembered her own father (who was also a king) making time for her and the rest of the family. The huntswoman was also confused about a curse that the red-eyed girl kept mentioning, and did not know if this was real or imagined, because a lot of the things she said seemed vague and strange. She might have been speaking metaphorically. She had told the emerald-eyed girl that she was tired and in physical pain from constant movement, but that she could not show it because it was weak of her to feel those things at all. She clutched the girl a little tighter with the arm she had wrapped around her back as she decided that if she would be travelling with this group, they would be getting plenty of rest.

Her arm dropped away from the girl suddenly and she frowned. What was she doing? Why would she care about this girl's weakness, or this girl's parents? She met her an hour ago! Of course she was just responding to Shizuru's distress, that was all. Because she had just found out about her own loss, she was sympathizing. It would go away, she decided, and realized that her abrupt movement had woken the sleeping princess as the girl suddenly stiffened next to her.

"Who…" she started groggily, retreating from the huntswoman as she looked up at her. "…Oh," she seemed to remember recent events and her face turned a little pink. "I…I apologize for—" she began, but Natsuki cut her off.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. Just get dressed and we can go," she found her own face turning red upon mentioning, and therefore being forced to realize, that the princess was still clad only in her cloak. Shizuru's brows drew together in confusion as she glanced down at herself and seemed to realize the same thing, standing and moving away to her clothes. Natsuki turned away, and it was quiet for several minutes. The huntswoman thought she'd never seen anyone move so…gracefully. It was like she was gliding, or maybe stalking like a predator would. She realized she could not hear her footsteps when she moved.

"So…where is it exactly, that we are going?" A voice said in a tone that was very different from any she had heard Shizuru using so far, and it was close enough to Natsuki's ear that she let out a small sound of surprise and found the girl standing very close behind her. The tone had been light, and there was a sort of serenity behind her strange red eyes that had not been there before, as well as a bit of amusement that accompanied a small smile that made the huntswoman's face heat up. Her first thought was that she was glad for the change, and her second one was to curse herself for being glad for someone she didn't even know. Her third one was that she had never spent so much time analyzing someone's every expression and tone of voice, and her fourth that she might be going mad too. Maybe it was contagious. She scowled.

"Well?" Shizuru asked again, and Natsuki was mortified that she had forgotten the princess had asked her something. She couldn't remember what it was, and that mortified her further. What the hell was wrong with her? The more embarrassed she got, it seemed, the wider the smile on the red-eyed girl's face and the deeper her own scowl.

"Wh...Just…just come on, already," she finally managed, and spun on her heel to walk toward the camp, hoping with a lot of force that the girl would just figure out that she was heading toward Shizuru's camp and not ask her any more questions. After a short, almost inaudible chuckle that made the huntswoman cover her face with one hand in embarrassment when the thought passed through her mind that it sounded like music, the infuriating girl did follow her without further comment. Thank goodness for small favors. How could someone who had made her feel such pity moments ago suddenly make her feel so…she cut herself off with another hand to her face and walked faster.

* * *

Shizuru felt…light. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from her and she could understand the common sentiment that it was sometimes necessary to cry, although she had never been 'common' before and thus had never indulged in it. It also did not hurt that the gorgeous woman walking in front of her toward the camp had shown up and held her as she released her pain, perhaps in a way that she had hoped her mother would hold her when she was very young. Then, the princess decided that was not it—the way she found herself watching the girl was probably not strictly appropriate.

The red-eyed girl decided that she had never seen someone so beautiful in her life, and wondered how much more beautiful the girl would be if she was wearing something that less concealed her form—a dress, perhaps? When the emerald-eyed girl spoke to Shizuru, her voice was almost akin to a caress and she had never heard nor felt anything like it. The girl also blushed powerfully and beautifully—the princess thought that causing those could become addictive. Obviously, she was quite taken with this Natsuki.

In fact, the red-eyed girl frowned as she considered that she was having difficulty focusing on anything else. There were important things she ought to be considering at the moment, such as the reasons for this stranger (this beautiful stranger) appearing at their camp or the fact that she had just been very intimate (emotionally, although the sudden thought of other intimacies made her shiver) with this stranger in a way that she had never been with anyone else. When they arrived at the camp, they found two more strangers sitting with Reito, Mikoto, and the Grimm sisters around the fire.

"I told you to wait," the huntswoman said testily in that wonderful voice of hers, glaring at the two girls. The taller, redheaded girl shrugged sheepishly and the mousy brunette smiled.

"As you said, we aren't very quiet, and these two found us on their way back to camp," she gestured toward Nao and Reito.

"Okay, your friend and Shizuru are here, so we're done waiting. Who are you?" the younger Grimm said with narrowed eyes, and Natsuki sat to recline against a large stone, perhaps to prepare for a long story. As she leaned back and the princess found her eyes glued to the girl's fluid movements, it occurred to her that she seemed extremely interested in someone who also happened to be a woman.

Although she had heard of such couplings, she had never considered that she might be different in this way. It was true that she had never had any interest in men before, and had enjoyed teasing (not seriously) the women in the palace (those that found themselves taken by her magically-given gifts could be very entertaining when she paid them attention). However, adult men were not allowed in her company outside of court because of those same gifts, and without comparison, the princess had no reason to suspect that she would behave any differently around men than women. She still had little basis for comparison, as Reito was the only man she had been in contact with since her awakening, and while she found him very handsome, she had never experienced the kind of attraction she found toward Natsuki, and that said something.

"Shizuru, are you all right?" Mai asked, and red eyes jumped to concerned lavender ones in surprise. She had just been standing there stupidly while everyone had made themselves comfortable, staring at the huntswoman. What in the world was _wrong_ with her?

"I…I believe I am simply tired," she finally answered uneasily, shifting on her feet and sitting on one of the bedrolls herself. She thought that this might even be true—perhaps that was why she could not think clearly. Not because of Natsuki herself, but because she was exhausted after the event earlier. That was not so unlikely, after all.

"I…I think that we all have a lot to talk about," the mousy brunette began uncertainly, "This girl here is Natsuki," she indicated the huntswoman, "I am Yukino and this is Midori," she gestured to her companion and Shizuru froze at their names, the world apart from Natsuki suddenly coming into clearer focus.

"_You_," the princess enunciated sharply, recognizing them suddenly and wondering briefly that she had not before. They were certainly both much smaller and much larger than she remembered them being (they either matched a normal person's size or were small enough to sit on her shoulder). All eyes were on the red-eyed girl now, as Yukino shrunk into herself and Midori straightened.

"Yeah, us," she returned easily, "Don't sound so happy to see us."

"Who…" Mai began, and Yukino answered.

"It was we who gave the princess her gifts upon her birth," the mousy girl said, "And watched over her in her youth," she continued uneasily.

"Although you were conspicuously absent when I was visited by a curse," Shizuru muttered darkly, and Midori scowled.

"We couldn't stop the curse—Maleficent saw to that. At least Haruka had the foresight to-"

"And has she broken the curse, as she promised?" Shizuru cut in argumentatively. She had not forgiven the loud, irritating Haruka for her idiotic gift. The powerful magic they had access to for her gifts could have been used to break the curse by itself, or perhaps even to prevent it—and the blonde in her haste had simply shouted "but _my_ gift will be to see that the curse can be broken!" with a triumphant grin and no forethought, and that had been that. The magic had been released. Immediately after, she had declared that the curse would be broken, with no way to back up that claim as no one knew _how_ this could be done, only that it could be.

"She didn't promise to break anything, she just made sure there was a way to—" The redheaded fairy was getting angrier by the second, and Shizuru continued to interrupt her.

"Of what use is a possibility without any knowledge or hint of that possibility?" Midori stood with a sudden snap.

"You ungrateful, snotty—"

"That's enough, both of you!" Natsuki cut in, and Shizuru looked away from the angry redheaded fairy guiltily and met emerald eyes that were narrowed in frustration. Her irritation deflated, and a quick glance confirmed the shocked and confused faces of the rest of their group (with Nao as an exception, as she was smirking knowingly as she looked between Natsuki and herself), and she frowned.

"I apologize for my rudeness. I think we do have a great deal to speak about," she said without looking at the fairies. "My story begins when I was awakened from a very long sleep by Mai and Nao Grimm, so perhaps we should hear their story first," she suggested, and Mai shrugged and began their tale.

* * *

"I'm not sure how far back I should go, so I'll just stick with the day Haruka showed up," Mai began, and flinched at the look on Shizuru's face at the mention of the blonde fairy's name. The princess definitely did not like the girl, and the elder Grimm didn't understand why. It was true that where Shizuru was careful with her movements and speech the obnoxious fairy was pretty opposite, but she didn't see why that would garner this kind of response. Maybe the red-eyed girl would tell them later. "Nao and I were, in our world, sort of…collectors of rare information, both historical and mythological. Our mother had died when we were younger, but told us many stories of the land of her birth, and these stories were full of crazy things like magic and monsters. Our brother, Takumi, had become sick recently, and healers told us that there was no medicine that could help him, and he might not live to see adulthood." She saw Nao turn away from the group so that none of them could see her face, and smiled apologetically at her younger sister. "And we had read so much about this place called Atlantis, or the Shimmering Isles, and how it was a place of magic. The stories we read were fantastical, and told of magic that could heal even grave wounds, and our mother had told us many times that this was true. We did not know what else to do to help Takumi, so we began hunting for specific information: how we could get to Atlantis ourselves. It was after a particularly dangerous encounter Nao had trying to get her hands on a very old book we thought might have something we could use in it that Takumi told us his life wasn't worth ours, and begged us to stop searching. That night, I was outside and saw a really strange, bright blue star in the sky and remembered the stories of the 'Blue Fairy' and her magic to grant wishes. I remember thinking, this is stupid, but what can it hurt? So I made a wish, and then Haruka was there standing in front of me. She started to talk, and then Nao knocked her out with a shovel." Mai laughed shortly and Nao threw up her arms.

"What? I didn't know what was going on, I just walked around a corner and saw some crazy blonde chick appear out of nowhere yelling at my terrified sister! There was a shovel in my hand…what the hell was I supposed to do?" Shizuru was wearing a small smile that made Mai shake her head in amusement.

"I think that you did exactly the right thing," she said lightly, and then heard the dark-haired newcomer let out a short, shocked laugh at the exchange. She had a very nice laugh, and at the attention she received for her outburst her face immediately turned red and she huffed. What an adorable girl—and dressed like a hunter. It seemed like kind of a contradiction. Mikoto was nodding sagely.

"Of course it was right—you had to protect Mai," she said with a certainty that brought a chuckle from her older brother, who had been quiet until now, watching her speak with great interest.

"Anyway, when she woke up and she and Nao finished their shouting match, she explained that she was in fact the Blue Fairy, but no one had called her that in a long time. She told us her name was Haruka, and she had been waiting for my wish for a long time, because she couldn't come to our world without a powerful heartfelt wish and she needed our help. Of course Nao demanded that she grant our wish, but I had only half-heartedly made a wish that we could find a way to save our brother." Nao rolled her eyes.

"Half-assed, you mean," she said wryly, "If you're going to make a stupid wish, you might as well have been specific about it." Mai slapped her on the arm and continued.

"Haruka couldn't have used her magic to save him anyway, because as she told us, she had very little magic in our world, and only enough left to grant one wish and transport herself home. Then she told us that if I wished to be transported to Avalon, she would use the magic left to her to send Nao there too."

"Oh, Haruka," Yukino sighed, at the same time Midori scoffed,

"That idiot." Natsuki looked at them curiously.

"What?" she asked and Midori rolled her eyes.

"She could have asked Mai to wish for herself and her sister to be transported to Avalon, and still used her magic to get home. The magic given for a wish is not small, and it would have been enough," Midori explained and Mai and Nao looked at the fairy incredulously.

"She can just be so single-minded sometimes…" Yukino sighed, and Shizuru interjected,

"Those are not the words I would use," which generated another entertained smirk from the emerald-eyed huntswoman. The princess seemed to be carefully avoiding looking at the dark-haired girl, and Mai wondered again what had happened between the two of them in the forest. They seemed strangely focused on each other.

"Well, that's something I didn't know. If I had, she could have been a lot of help here." Mai said, thinking their first few days on Atlantis, er, the Shimmering Isles, would have gone a lot more smoothly with someone familiar with the area.

"Or a great hindrance," the princess added again, with a sharply muttered, "That's enough" from Midori silencing her. Shizuru really had it in for Haruka—it was really something. Mai hadn't ever seen her act like this before.

"Uh, anyhow, she told us that she had a way to get home eventually, it would just take a while and she would have to meet us here. Then she told us about the prophecy and Snow White, and that the Queen didn't know the last part yet, the part about Sleeping Beauty, and that only we could wake her up."

"Sleeping Beauty? What's that?" Natsuki asked, and Midori pointed at the princess. "Shizuru?"

"Yes?" the girl in question smiled at the huntswoman, who blushed and looked away.

"Nevermind, I just…nevermind, keep going," the girl sputtered uncomfortably.

"When we asked why, she told us something vague about our blood and that our mother was from the Isles," Mai said, "we couldn't get much more about that, but she told us where to find Shizuru's palace, and how to wake her up. She said that we would need to take the princess to the Feywild to find Snow White, and that she would find us there. Once she met up with us again, she would help us find a cure that we could bring back to Takumi." Natsuki sat up straighter, frowning.

"Why did you have to find Snow White? What was this prophecy?" Nao rolled her eyes and recited the now familiar words:

_The fairest of them all becomes Maleficent, and she will control the whole of the Land. When she is most powerful, another will gain the power to usurp her. She will be white as snow, and the Land itself shall embrace her purity of heart and soul. The Fairest Queen's darkness will come for pure Snow White from each corner of the Land, and alone her removed heart will serve to strengthen a maleficent hold on the people. The only victory lies in the protection of the princess by Sleeping Beauty, who awakes within a curse and a palace become tomb._

"Shizuru is supposed to protect me? How? From what?" Natsuki asked, brows knitted together in confusion.

"You are Snow White?" the princess in question turned to her in surprise, and Natsuki grinned sheepishly.

"Nice to meet you, Sleeping Beauty," she muttered, and Shizuru let out a laugh that stunned them all for a moment.

"The pleasure is _all_ mine," she answered with a warmth that made the elder Grimm uncomfortable, and turned the huntswoman's face a new shade of red.

"So, um," Mai started with a cough, "We got here, found Shizuru, and ended up in the Feywild with a few new friends," she gestured at Reito and Mikoto, "and that's our story. What's yours?" Everyone looked at Snow White, the huntswoman, and she looked at them for several moments, and then stood up.

"Yukino and Midori can tell my story," she said quietly, "I don't want to talk about it anymore," she said and disappeared into the forest. Mai wanted to follow her, to comfort the girl who had suddenly seemed overwhelmed, but saw Shizuru stand instantly and disappear after her. What in the world was going on with those two?

"I guess that's my cue," Midori started, "Once upon a time, there were a king and queen who were loved by all, and were very happy until they found that they could not have children…"

* * *

"Natsuki?" Shizuru's voice caused her to spin around with sword raised. She had not heard the girl, the princess, behind her at all. She moved way too quietly. "I hope I have not offended you in a way that might cause you to react so violently," the beautiful girl said with a trace of amusement in her voice that caused the huntswoman's face to heat up…again. She sputtered uselessly as she sheathed her sword.

"You just snuck up on me, that's all…I'm not used to people being able to do that…" The princess was smiling that strange smile at her again, the one that made her both happy and insanely uncomfortable all at once.

"I see. Then I will endeavor to make more noise in the future," she replied, and Natsuki crossed her arms and huffed.

"Shizuru…" she whined, and the girl tilted her head.

"Yes?"

"…Nothing. Look, I came out here to—"

"Natsuki, behind you," the red-eyed girl whispered fiercely, and the huntswoman spun again, reaching for the hilt of her sword, to find…Duran. He had been waiting for her to leave the others.

"It's just Duran," she told the princess, who had backed a few steps away, "He won't hurt you. He's been with me since I was very young," she explained, unsure again why she found it so easy to speak to the other girl.

"Duran, is it…" the girl muttered in her strange accent as she gave the black wolf a measuring look, and Natsuki nodded as the wolf nudged her thigh and she stroked his fur indulgently. Then the princess approached them and knelt to look at her companion. "Then thank you very much, Duran, for looking after Natsuki. I think I'm supposed to help you with that, now…" she told him in that musical voice with a small smile, and he watched her cautiously. She looked up at the huntswoman with serious eyes, "Though you seem much more competent than I when it comes to things like fighting. I do not know how I am meant to protect you, or from what," she told her apologetically, and Natsuki shrugged, the corners of her mouth turning up just a little involuntarily.

"All this prophecy crap just confuses me anyway," she told her, "Maybe we should just try to figure out how to stop the Queen and go from there," she said. Then she realized the position they were in, the gorgeous girl still kneeling at her feet and looking up at her with those strange, red eyes, stumbled back a step awkwardly, and held out a hand to help the girl up with a red face. The girl looked at her oddly, first in confusion, then in amusement as she took her hand and stood.

"I see," she said slowly, in consideration. "Not much for duty, then?" she asked. Emerald met red.

"My duty is to kill the Queen," she answered, ice creeping into her voice. "And I'm _all_ for that." The princess studied her for a while, with what she thought might be a measuring look. Strange that she still didn't feel all that uncomfortable—at least, not when the girl kept her distance. When Shizuru got close to Natsuki, she felt really weird, and she wasn't sure she liked it much. But something about this girl had gotten hold of her, and she really wanted to understand what it was.

"The prophecy says only that you usurp the Queen, not that you kill her," Shizuru pointed out lightly, looking for a response. Natsuki scratched Duran behind his ears, and he stepped closer to her side, looking up at the red-eyed girl as she regarded the princess with a level gaze.

"My duty isn't to the prophecy. It's to my family—and she killed them all."


End file.
